IT is now six years since the SNP’s manifesto included a promise to introduce national pay bargaining for colleges, and yet here we are in 2017 and the sector is apparently no closer to a resolution. Indeed, it appears to be heading in the wrong direction on pay, with an announcement this week that the Further Education Lecturers’ Association, a branch of the EIS, has officially declared a dispute with college management over the lack of progress in implementing the national pay deal. Whatever happens now, it is a frustrating step backwards.

Where there appears to be no real disagreement is on the principle of national pay bargaining itself. Teachers and staff working in the university sector have long enjoyed the benefits of national bargaining, but the situation in further education changed when colleges were taken out of local authority control.

Since then, salaries and working conditions have been negotiated separately at each college, with the result that over the years significant disparities have developed on pay, holidays and other working conditions. In some cases, some staff are earning as much as £12,000 more for doing a similar job.

Both sides seem to agree that disparities of that kind are unfair and should be ironed out – a view supported by the Griggs Review of Further Education Governance which recommended pay harmonisation in 2012 and set out a detailed timetable, with a mechanism due to be agreed by 2013. The Scottish Government also committed to the policy in 2011, and has since confirmed its commitment, and in May last year the unions and management finally reached an agreement that established £40,000 as the top of the pay scale for a lecturer in an unpromoted position. It looked like, at last, a deal was close.

Naturally, the deal will be costly for the colleges which have suffered very deep cuts to their learning and teaching budgets in recent years, which is why the agreement was that the pay increases would be phased in over three years.

However, what is not clear is whether it is the cost of harmonisation or some other issue that is causing the delays. The Further Education Lecturers’ Association says its negotiators went into the recent discussions to talk about the practicalities of delivering the pay agreement, but were met with obfuscation from management. The Colleges Scotland Employers’ Association on the other hand says it is fully committed to honouring the 2016 agreement, including £40,000 for the top of the salary scale.

If the management is serious about that then it should now honour the promise without delay - the bottom line is they have a responsibility to act or explain why they have not acted. As for the cost of the process, if there is any prospect that paying for harmonisation could result in cuts elsewhere, then the Scottish Government, which committed itself to the principle in 2011, must put up the money to ensure the transition to national pay bargaining has the funding it needs.

There is widespread agreement that the college sector needs and deserves national pay bargaining. The colleges’ management must now get on and deliver it.