College support staff could be owed a collective £80 million in backpay dating back to 2018, and the Scottish Government is responsible for footing the bill.
Any potential backpay depends on colleges completing a national job evaluation project, which is meant to analyse all job roles in the sector and determine where staff have been overpaid or underpaid.
Any backpay calculations will date back to 2018, when the project was first initiated.
Because the process involves a detailed analysis of all positions at every college, both union and college representatives have stressed the importance of moving quickly.
The Herald can exclusively reveal that College Employers Scotland (CES) has conducted an internal cost exercise and suggested that the total backpay owed as of the end of the 2024/2025 academic year could be around £80m.
Whatever the actual cost, the pay owed to staff will increase every year the process drags on, and it will be up to the Scottish Government to fund.
At a Public Audit Committee meeting in November 2024, MSPs pressed government officials on whether the Scottish Government could cover the cost.
Neil Rennick, Director-General of Education and Justice, told the committee that although the government has no role in the job evaluation process, “there is a recognition that the Scottish Government would take on any financial responsibilities that arise from the process.”
He added: “However, as with any public spending, it must be assessed whether or not the outcome is regular, appropriate and value for money.”
When pressed on whether the government would directly commit to fully funding the outcome, Mr Rennick said that the job evaluation would create " pressure and a liability” and that he “cannot pre-empt” the outcome or the costs.
When asked this week if the government would commit to funding any resulting back-pay, a Scottish Government spokesperson told The Herald that the government “remains committed” to the project.
“Backdated pay, when agreed, will be distributed to colleges via the standard SFC allocations process.
"It is our expectation that this spend will be monitored through the reporting and audit processes already in place between Colleges and the Scottish Funding Council.”
A decade of consistent industrial disputes has continually derailed the job evaluation process.
Unite the Union has previously expressed that its members “lost faith” in the project. However, many were also frustrated because they expected the process would result in a pay increase that had been due for years.
Recent progress has been made on restarting the process, although not all unions support the strategy.
Unison, Unite, and employers have agreed on a general approach for resuming the job evaluation: essentially, colleges, as individual employers, will analyse and quantify responsibilities for every role and then use the resulting score to determine where a job falls on the college’s salary range.
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The outcomes will determine whether a role has the correct salary, is underpaid or is overpaid. In cases where staff are identified as underpaid, they will receive backpay; where staff are overpaid, they will continue to receive their current salary until subsequent pay rises exceed it.
GMB Scotland, the third union representing support staff at the national bargaining structure, has rejected this approach. In a recent ballot, 91% of GMB members rejected the proposed methodology for the job evaluation process, and 98% said that they wanted more talks before the project's scope was finalised.
At the heart of GMB’s dissent is a desire for the process to include a national standardisation of jobs and pay, similar to the deal for college lecturers and public sector workers in the NHS, rather than to allow individual colleges to carry out assessments of their pay rates.
Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services, said that GMB members have “no confidence that the proposed process will produce a fair pay structure across further education".
He added: “Workers must be levelled up, not down, removing the risk of workers losing salary because of this process.
“That was the foundation of the process when the jobs of lecturers were harmonised, and there is no good reason why the same cannot apply to support staff.”
GMB has written to Cabinet Secretary for Education Jenny Gilruth, asking ministers to intervene and convince employers and the other unions to reconsider their proposals. However, GMB’s opposition will not be enough to halt the process on its own.
Within the current national bargaining framework, support staff unions have five seats on the negotiating side table, allocated according to membership. Unite and GMB have one seat each, while Unison has three. Because of this, the support from Unison and Unite is enough to proceed with the job evaluation project.
CES Director Gavin Donoghue said that employers understand staff members’ frustration and that all sides need to continue the momentum of the recent progress in agreeing to a framework for the evaluation process.
“We are pleased that this new approach received backing from a majority of support staff trade union members who voted in recent consultative ballots. Colleges are now preparing to take the project forward, in collaboration with our partners, and we will make every effort to ensure staff are kept updated.”
Mr Donoghue added that GMB will continue to be invited to participate in discussions, but that “pay harmonisation for support staff across colleges is not, and has never been, an agreed outcome of the National Job Evaluation Project.”
Alison MacLean, Unite lead officer for further and higher education, said that it is impossible to speculate on the potential back-pay owed. However, moving quickly and efficiently will be essential to avoid further delays and added financial pressures.
“Unite understands that money is earmarked for backpay which is exactly why Unite wants to ensure this job evaluation project concludes and without further delay.
“We are determined to ensure that those who are eligible for backpay receive this but we do not know as yet what that financial element looks like or the final timescales, but there is an expectation that it could be at least another year as all job roles have yet to be evaluated and scored."
Unison has not responded to a request for comment.
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