Employees at a Scottish college will take industrial action amid claims of an attempt to remove 30 lecturers’ jobs and replace them with support staff.
The EIS union said the action at Forth Valley College would include "working to rule", where members will do no more than the minimum required by their contract, escalating to a refusal to take an accurate student register, a marking boycott, and refusing to cover for absent colleagues.
Members, who said they were "furious" about what they have described as an attempt to attack their contracts and profession during a pandemic, will be taking action from November 10 until January 29, 2021, unless a resolution is found.
Eighty per cent of participating members voted for action short of strike, with turnout of 53%, in a ballot that closed last week. The members involved are spread across sites in Falkirk, Alloa, and Stirling.
College leaders said they were "deeply disappointed" at the move, adding that it would have a "serious detrimental effect" on students.
The EIS believes that the proposed changes are a retrograde step for the profession and the students. The new roles are lower paid, with more class contact hours, less time for preparation, and reduced annual leave. The union also warns that the move will impact the quality of education on offer to students.
It said the new roles would not require a teaching qualification or General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) recognition.
Forth Valley College Branch Convenor Anne-Marie Harley said: “We are furious that the college is trying to attack our contracts and profession during a global pandemic. We hope that management with reconsider their position and we will continue to seek a resolution, but this result shows that staff are more than prepared to take action to defend our livelihoods and our students’ right to quality education.”
EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said: “It is clear that these changes are about cutting costs – no matter the impact on the quality of education. Members across Scotland are concerned that the professional role and status of college lecturers is under threat.”
He added: “Whilst the ballot result is a clear mandate for industrial action, it is not too late for the college to this, but they need to act now and reinstate lecturers’ posts.”
Dr Ken Thomson, Principal of Forth Valley College said: “We are deeply disappointed that some EIS FELA members are planning to take action short of strike action. This is despite only having 42% agreement with the overall EIS membership at the College.
“The proposed actions will have a serious detrimental effect for our students in progressing their qualifications and their future opportunities. These are students who are already facing challenges due to the ongoing pandemic. Our focus just now should be on supporting them not putting their future plans at any further risk.
“We have fully consulted with staff throughout this process and have full support from our Board of Management. Any decisions we have taken have been made to enhance the learning experience for our students. This is about improving the quality of learning and teaching and bringing it in line with the needs of industry and employers and our proven successful vocational model. As an organisation, we must be flexible and responsive to these needs and evolve.
“The new Instructor Assessor role is now established at the College - and other colleges throughout the country - and we are confident it will strengthen our delivery model and benefit our students. We are disappointed that our EIS Representatives are saying to their EIS members that this is only the first of many changes to lecturers’ posts. We have made our position clear, there are no plans to make any further structural changes and we must move on collectively in the best interests of our students.
“In light of the proposed action by some staff, our focus now is on putting plans in place to support our students and trying to minimise the impact on them.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here