EIS union comes out in force for a fair settlement for lecturers

Scotland’s college lecturers, represented by the Educational Institute of Scotland – Further Education Lecturers’ Association, are currently in the midst of a long-running dispute over pay.

Lecturers should have received a cost-of-living pay increase in September 2022 but are still waiting for a fair offer from college employers – more than a year and a half later.

This has come during the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory, with soaring inflation which reached a peak of over 14% on the RPI index shortly after the lecturers’ pay settlement was due to be paid. 

AN INFERIOR OPENING OFFER
THE first offer from college employers was a 2% salary increase for one year and was put on the table in December 2022. With inflation sitting, that month, at over 13% (RPI), that offer was swiftly rejected.

With no improvement on the offer, EIS-FELA consulted its members on their willingness to potentially take both action short of strike and strike action. EIS-FELA was clear that action short of strike would be taken first and if this failed to produce an offer then strike action would be deployed. This was also made clear to college employers.

Without progress, a statutory ballot for industrial action was conducted by the EIS, in April 2023. A further offer came, later that month, of a 3.5% increase for each year in a two-year deal. College employers stated when this offer was presented that it would result in job losses.

With inflation running at over 11% (RPI), and with the potential deal tied to job cuts across the sector, the offer was rejected by lecturers.

INDUSTRIAL ACTION AND CUTS 
ACTION short of strike, in the form of a resulting boycott and work to rule, began in May 2023 on the same day that the Scottish Government announced the withdrawal of an additional £26million that had been allocated to the college sector. 

The EIS wrote to the Scottish Government calling for an emergency funding package to be implemented for colleges, and wrote to all college principals asking them to join us in this call. To date, college employers have been unwilling to make a joint call with the EIS to the Scottish Government for the delivery of an emergency funding package. 

FIRST ‘FULL AND FINAL’ OFFER 
COLLEGE employers produced a ‘full and final’ offer of £2,000 for year one and £1,500 for year two in early June 2023. Figures from the employers forecasted that this offer would result in “potentially” 400 job losses. EIS-FELA rejected the offer and made clear that it would not accept a pay offer predicated on job losses.

ANOTHER ‘FULL AND FINAL’ OFFER
COLLEGE employers produced another ‘full and final’ offer, tabled in November 2023, of £2,000 for year one, £1,500 for year two and £1,500 for year three.

This offer represented an 11.5% pay increase spread over three years for most lecturing staff in the sector but will be a real-terms pay cut since inflation (RPI) for the period August 2022 – March 2024 is already sitting at 11%, with a considerable period of the proposed deal left to go.

It is also less than other groups of public sector workers received over a two-year period (2022/23 and 2023/24) such as the NHS (11.8%), Police Officers (12%), Firefighters (12%) and Teachers (12%). It is worth noting that all of these public sector pay deals were funded by additional Scottish Government money. 

So, not only are lecturers being offered a lower settlement, but it is also spread over a longer period of time – three years rather than two – and not a penny of extra funding has been provided by the Scottish Government. 

THREATS OF ‘DEEMING’ 
FOLLOWING a re-ballot of members and in spite of the UK government’s anti-trade union laws EIS-FELA achieved a fresh mandate to continue industrial action. This renewed mandate saw Action Short of Strike, in the form of a resulting boycott and work to rule, begin in February 2024.

However, the week prior to this legitimate industrial action starting, almost all college employers across the sector issued notices of pay deductions amounting to up to 100% of wages – known as “deeming” - from staff for participating in action short of strike.

EIS-FELA is of the view that this is a clear breach of the Fair Work Framework, to which colleges as public sector employers are obliged to and claim they adhere. 

The Scottish Government has previously said it opposes the anti-trade union laws introduced by the Westminster government and that it wishes to become a leading Fair Work nation by 2025 but has been deafeningly silent while college employers have sought to intimidate lecturers by threatening full withholding of wages for those carrying out industrial action short of strike. 

As such, the threats of deeming have only served to illustrate the cultural shift required by colleges to become Fair Work employers and by the Scottish Government if we are genuinely to become a Fair Work nation. 

NATIONAL STRIKE ACTION
THE EIS-FELA attempted to avert action short of strike and strike action but has ultimately been left with no choice. The current pay offer from College Employers Scotland has been resoundingly rejected by EIS-FELA members. 

However, instead of attempting to negotiate and find a resolution to the dispute, college principals have adopted an aggressive, vindictive, and anti-trade union mindset that is intensifying the dispute.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government rather than stepping up and stepping in with funds to facilitate a settlement, have stood back claiming that it is not their responsibility to ensure the delivery of a fair settlement for hardworking college lecturers. 

The Scottish Government has intervened to ensure other public sector workers have secured appropriate cost-of-living pay increases, so why not college lecturing staff?  ■