STRESS levels amongst staff at Scottish colleges have reached "breaking point", a union has warned.
UNISON Scotland said college support workers were badly overstretched after a survey showed four out of five had experienced stress at work.
The survey also showed over one third felt bullied and 20 per cent had taken sick leave as a result.
The main reasons for stress were cited as too much work, a de-motivating environment and not enough staff resources.
The survey was conducted as part of a wider UNISON report into stress and bullying in Scotland’s colleges, due to be published in the autumn.
It comes after the Scottish Government initiated a re-organisation of the further education sector across the country with college mergers which led to a reduction in the numbers of staff.
According to an Audit Scotland report in 2015 staff numbers decreased by more than nine per cent between 2011/12 and 2013/14.
There is also an ongoing row over the amount of money paid to support staff and UNISON is currently balloting for industrial action after they rejected the pay offer for 2016. Unions say it is inferior compared to the offer to teaching staff.
Chris Greenshields, chair of UNISON Scotland’s further education committee, said: "The stress levels of college staff are reaching breaking point and the government needs to step in urgently to address these failings.
"The new national bargaining structures could have, and should have, made progress by now on policies which could have helped address the problems highlighted.
"These are problems which UNISON has raised for some time and employers seem intent on pushing down their list of priorities. Frontline services have never been so stretched."
Shona Struthers, chief executive of Colleges Scotland said: “We are disappointed that UNISON has not shared the survey and its results with the employers nor invited them to contribute. We would be keen to work with the union to address any issues arising from the survey.”
About 4.400 support staff are employed in Scottish colleges with terms and conditions varying significantly between institutions.
More than one third of those who took part in the survey said they were unaware of any anti-stress or anti-bullying policies at their college. More than 500 support staff from 17 colleges took part in the survey.
Half of respondents cited unsympathetic management as affecting their work life balance and 46 per cent blamed having to work over more than one campus. Some 50 per cent said flexible working hours would help, 43 per cent backed home working and 61 per cent said uncertainty over future roles had a detrimental impact on their sense of happiness in the workplace.
More than three quarters said they had suffered sleep disturbance resulting in fatigue caused by stress or bullying in the workplace while more than two thirds experienced anxiety and over half said they were de-motivated.
John Gallacher, UNISON Scotland’s lead officer for further education, said: “As if support staff in colleges didn’t have enough to contend with.
"They’ve watched as colleagues in lecturing go off on six weeks’ holiday to spend the pay rise they received from the employers, while they are forced to ballot for industrial action over the employers’ failure to offer them the same pay offer."
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