More college lecturer strikes announced in long-running pay dispute

Two more weeks of strike action in Scottish colleges have been announced as a long-running pay dispute continues.

The Educational Institute of Scotland’s (EIS) emergency committee said there would be six additional strike dates in the latter half of August.

It comes after a recent re-ballot of members of the EIS’s Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA), who remained committed to taking industrial action against their employers in a pursuit of a pay settlement.

Scottish further education lecturers have not received a pay increase since 2021, according to EIS.

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “Our members continue to stand firm in displaying their strong and unwavering commitment to industrial action in pursuit of a fair pay settlement from college employers.

“Scotland’s FE lecturers have not had a pay increase since September 2021 and, for the past three years, have had to endure a sharp decline in the real-terms value of their salaries throughout the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory.

“It is right that EIS-FELA continues to fight for a just pay award for lecturers, in the face of intransigence from College Employers Scotland and an unwillingness so far on the part of the Scottish Government to step up and play its part in bringing about a satisfactory resolution.

“I have written to the Minister for FE again today, urging the Scottish Government to act in accordance with its recent manifesto promises to stand up for workers and stand up for public services, by putting a stop to deeming by college employers and by providing a small amount of funding in comparison to that given to other public sector pay settlements to bring this dispute to an end.”

The EIS has authorised six more days of strikes from August 20-22 and 27-30.

It warned further action may be taken after a meeting next week, and said more strikes may take place if no satisfactory offer is made.

Gavin Donoghue, director of College Employers Scotland (CES), said: “It is deeply regrettable that the EIS-FELA is planning yet more strikes at the start of the academic year, on top of the continuing resulting boycott.

“College Employers Scotland has proposed a four-year pay award worth an average of almost £6,500 and which keeps Scotland’s college lecturers as the best paid in the UK.

“The employers’ offer would deliver substantial salary increases for staff, with the starting salary of a college lecturer rising to over £41,000 from September next year.

“Given the perilous state of the college sector’s finances, further strikes from the EIS-FELA will not result in an improvement to the already substantial pay proposals from employers.

“Colleges strongly urge the EIS-FELA to call off these new strikes, and their resulting boycott, so as not to damage the chances of students at the start of their learner journey or those who are seeking to move on to positive destinations.”

The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.