College lecturers to strike in pay row

College lecturers have voted to strike in their pursuit of a “fair cost of living pay increase”.

Ninety per cent of lecturers supported strike action in the ballot organised by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and Further Education Lecturers’ Association (FELA), with a turnout of 52%.

College bosses say staff received “the best pay offer anywhere across Scotland’s public services” of more than 12% over three years.

However, union bosses have accused management of “using conflated figures in publicity to obfuscate the pay claim”, and are demanding a pay rise higher than the increasing cost of living.

EIS-FELA president Pam Currie said: “We are taking this action as a last resort, as the result of management’s unwillingness to negotiate a fair offer.

“Lecturers do not take strike action lightly, and we have done everything that we can over the past two years of talks to attempt to reach a fair negotiated settlement.

“We have repeatedly sought to engage management in meaningful negotiations and formally submitted a revised claim based on public sector pay policy in line with the offer made to support staff.

“Even at this late stage, we hope that college management will now come back to the table to begin meaningful negotiations and deliver a cost of living increase similar to others in the public sector.”

If a strike goes ahead, it will be the third industrial action in the last four years, and the latest as part of the long-running dispute.

Describing the result of the vote as “extremely disappointing”, John Gribben, director of employment services at Colleges Scotland Employers’ Association, said: “At the heart of this dispute is that the EIS-FELA will not accept that the pay increases from national bargaining are increases in pay.

“They also want more pay for cost of living.

“The employers’ view is that a pay rise is a pay rise, irrespective of where it comes from, and the EIS-FELA has rejected a combined pay offer which would increase lecturers’ pay on average by more than 12% over three years – this is the best pay offer anywhere across Scotland’s public services.

“Finances are extremely tight for colleges and all of the 1.3% real term increase in revenue funding for colleges – £18.3 million – announced in last week’s 2019-20 draft Budget will be used for national bargaining.

“The employers’ final pay offer would increase lecturers’ average pay from £36,125 in April 2016 to £40,522 in April 2019 – an increase of 12.2%. This is a very generous offer.”

The EIS-FELA said strike dates will be announced “in due course”.