College employers will table a new pay offer for support staff this week, The Herald can exclusively reveal.
The revised three-year pay offer will be put only to support staff unions Unison, Unite and GMB. Unite and GMB have previously voted to accept an earlier offer of £5,000 over three years.
No new offer is expected for lecturing staff represented by EIS-FELA.
A source close to college employers said: “Recent informal talks between College Employers Scotland (CES) and support staff trade unions have made good progress.
"Employers have agreed to a revised three-year pay offer that can be put formally to the support staff trade unions this week.
"It is hoped that the support staff trade unions will then put this new offer to their members in formal ballots, and avert further industrial action.
"Pay talks with the EIS-FELA remain ongoing.”
College support staff have been in dispute with employers since 2022, when they submitted a pay claim and joined lecturing staff in a national dispute over the terms of a pay deal and guarantees of no compulsory redundancies.
Unions eventually voted in favour of launching industrial action and have carried out 13 days of strike action so far.
Before this week, the most recent offer from college employers consisted of a £5,000 pay rise over three years for all staff – lecturers and support – at all pay grades.
Support staff unions GMB and Unite have already accepted this offer.
Unison has by far the largest membership of the three unions and, as such, carries three votes in negotiations compared to one each for GMB and Unite. This breakdown means that there will be no agreed deal for support staff until Unison's roughly 2,500 members approve an offer.
Read more: Pay attention to striking lecturers – but don't forget the support staff
Disputes between employers and support staff have been a regular occurrence over the past decade. Since 2014, there have been at least seven separate disputes over pay and terms of employment.
In addition to the current pay dispute, support staff have been engaged in a dispute over an ongoing process of job evaluation. This was meant to be a six-month process as part of the job harmonisation needed for national bargaining to come into play in 2016 but has dragged on for more than six years.
Support staff represent roughly half of the college workforce, and jobs range from classroom support to IT staff to building management.
Read more: How ten years of disputes have shaped the college sector
Unison most recently voted in favour of strike action in 2023, with a mandate that runs through the end of May.
College employers have previously made two offers to trade unions labelled "full and final," and have said that there is no room in college budgets to improve on the most recent offer, which will cost roughly £72 million to pay out all staff.
The financial details of the new offer have not been disclosed. However, it is different from previous offers in that it is explicitly for support staff and does not include college lecturers.
Sean Baillie, GMB Scotland organiser, said an acceptable pay offer for college support staff would be welcome but many months too late.
“Scotland’s colleges are built on the shoulders of our members and could not function without their commitment, skills and experience.
“An offer that recognises that will be welcome but has taken far too long. This needlessly protracted negotiation process cannot be repeated.”
Garry Ross, further education officer for EIS said that the lecturers' union expects to hold negotiations with CES next week.
“The EIS-FELA has not received an improved offer from College Employers Scotland relating to its current national pay dispute.
"The EIS-FELA recognises that successful negotiations will only arise from an improved offer being tabled to prevent further industrial action taking place later this month.”
Unison and Unite have been approached for comment.
Due to the structure of the national bargaining system, even though the lecturers' union EIS-FELA and support staff trade unions are part of three-sided negotiations with employers, support staff can come to an independent resolution without having EIS-FELA on board.
Read more: 'Chronic underfunding' – Colleges face budget gap of nearly half a billion pounds
The industrial disputes are set against the backdrop of serious financial concerns across the college sector. The Herald's recent spotlight series on the state of Scotland's colleges revealed that the sector is facing a £500 million funding gap over the past three years.
Employers and trade unions have called on the Scottish Government to address "chronic underfunding" of the sector.
Off the back of The Herald's series, the issue of college funding has been a regular point of contention in Holyrood and Minister for Further and Higher Education Graeme Dey facing multiple calls this week to step in and resolve the long-running disputes.
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