The Herald:

Last Thursday saw the fourth day of strike action for college lecturers across Scotland, with reports that picket lines were never stronger. The union representing Scotland’s college lecturers, the Educational Institute of Scotland – Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA), has tried for over two years to engage management in meaningful negotiation over a cost of living pay rise.  However, in the face of an intransigent management side, it has had no other option but to resort to industrial action. 

Our demand is simple and reasonable - a cost of living pay rise in line with public sector pay policy. We have made numerous attempts to reach a negotiated settlement, including moving significantly on the value of our pay claim and offering to suspend industrial action, thereby minimising the disruption to learners.  On every occasion, these efforts have been rejected by Colleges Scotland.

We do not believe that Colleges Scotland is negotiating in good faith. They have not demonstrated a willingness to reach a negotiated settlement, and instead have issued communications designed to fan the flames of this dispute. Their communications – notably their Parliamentary Briefing – have included what we believe to be inaccurate and misleading information, which exaggerates the cost of harmonisation payments received as a result of the equal pay dispute in 2017, conflating them with increments that lecturers would have received under local agreements.

In the most recent communications, Colleges Scotland has suggested that support for the strike is dwindling, referring to figures which it appears to have collated on strike days. This is at variance with feedback from our branches and what we have seen across the country on picket lines.  Once again, the reader must look behind the propaganda of this management side and reflect on the fact that they are not comparing like with like. Every college is in a different teaching block now than in January, when the strikes began, with this block seeing less teaching activity and so, lower numbers of teaching staff than earlier in the year.  The strikes also took place on different days of the week with varying numbers of members eligible to work on those days. 

We have long known that this fight was not simply about a cost of living pay rise, but about a wider agenda in Further Education that stretches back to 2015 and the return to national bargaining. We are in dispute over a cost of living pay rise – a pay rise on which we have indicated our willingness to compromise and to accept public sector pay norms – but management has refused to engage meaningfully.  Although they have made different offers, the consolidated amount has not moved from 2% over three years for the majority of our members – less than 1% per year!

This is about more than money – in the context of a £606m sector, the £4m that separates the two sides is a relatively small sum. Management has indicated that there might be more money on the table but to access this, our members must be willing to sacrifice hard fought for terms and conditions – not ‘concessions’ as the management portray. 

Instead of working with us to find a resolution to this pay dispute, Colleges Scotland chose to introduce these new items for negotiation.  Their demands include changes to an agreement on transfer to permanence which would extend the use of precarious contracts in the sector, the imposition of classroom observation and the inclusion of lecturing staff in a job evaluation scheme. Management claim these measures would produce efficiency savings, but most would actually cost colleges money! If Colleges Scotland was serious in its commitment to resolve this dispute and prevent further strike action, then it would not be introducing such eleventh-hour conditions. 

Colleges Scotland’s public statements continue to perpetuate the conflation of equal pay with a cost of living pay rise. Many college lecturers gained nothing or very little through the equal pay (harmonisation) process.  Those who have received an increase through harmonisation had been significantly underpaid for many years.   Having won equal pay, lecturers should not now be penalised by not having what other public sector workers have received - a cost of living pay rise. No one would suggest that the women who have secured equal pay at the City of Glasgow Council should not be entitled to a cost of living pay rise. 

Lecturers are asking only to be treated fairly, and to receive a pay settlement that reflects the rising cost of living.  Industrial action is a last resort and members would rather be in classes, supporting their students. 

At branches around the country and at our national AGM in Perth, lecturers – who are fully aware of the offers on the table - have spoken.  They have no confidence in Colleges Scotland as the self-proclaimed “voice of the sector”. The Scottish Government promised national bargaining for the Further Education sector and through the Fair Work Convention reiterated its commitment to tackling zero hours contracts and promoting a trade union voice. Colleges Scotland are riding roughshod over these commitments while showing little concern for their staff and learners.  We have tried to negotiate in good faith and it is now time for the Scottish Government to intervene.  

Pam Currie is President of the Educational Institute of Scotland – Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA)