Striking college lecturers will be able to access a £5 million hardship fund while industrial action is ongoing, a union has announced.

Members of the EIS Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA) are engaged in a series of rolling walkouts and a marking boycoot in a long-running dispute over pay.

In response, many college employers have said they will withhold some or all pay from lecturers who participate, a tactic known as “deeming.”

EIS-FELA representatives have not accepted the employers’ most recent three-year, £5,000 pay rise, although the union has tabled a new four-year claim which is being negotiated.

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At a special meeting on Thursday, the union agreed to establish a hardship fund of £5m to support its members, which will be offered to all members for all days of strike action from this week until the end of the academic session.

EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “The allocation of £5m to support hardship payments is a major financial commitment from the EIS to support our lecturers in the Further Education sector.

"College management seems determined to inflict as much financial pain as possible on lecturers taking industrial action, including the disgraceful tactic of ‘deeming’ 100% of salaries from lecturers who are actually at work but taking action short of strike.

The Herald: Lecturers' union EIS-FELA has been in dispute with employers since 2022.

"The Scottish Government, the Minster for Further Education and the Cabinet Secretary for Education have been missing in action, seemingly turning a blind eye to the aggressive tactics of college principals who appear quite happy for strike action to continue, and for lecturers and students to suffer while this dispute drags on.

"Scotland’s college lecturers want an end to this dispute and a fair pay settlement, but they will not be bullied into submission by the vindictive actions of college management and by the complete abdication of responsibility from Scottish Government Ministers.

"The EIS is making a very clear statement today – we are supporting our members in Scotland’s Further Education colleges, and we will not back down until a fair deal is reached which pays college lecturers fairly and allows them to return to working normally, for the benefit of Scotland’s college students, the wider community, and our whole society."

College Employers Scotland said: "The EIS-FELA has tabled a new, four-year pay claim, which will be carefully considered. We urge the trade union to suspend all industrial action while this happens.

“It is bewildering that the EIS-FELA is calling its members out on further strike days, which could cost individual lecturers over a thousand pounds, and will not lead to an improved pay offer from employers.

“With strikes and a resulting boycott scheduled to take place during the exam period, students will, once again, be the ones who suffer. However, learners can be reassured that colleges will put in place mitigations to minimise any disruption.

“The pay and conditions provided to Scotland’s lecturers are already the best in the UK. And the employers’ full and final offer of a £5,000 consolidated pay increase over three years would only cement this advantage.

“Under the employers’ proposals, the average lecturer would receive an 11.5% pay rise from September, and college lecturers at the start of the unpromoted pay scale would get a rise of over 14%.

“The employers’ three-year offer also compares well with public sector pay policy (PSPP), and would leave the average lecturer almost £1,500 better off than under PSPP. In addition, employers have given explicit commitments that no compulsory redundancies would result directly from the pay offer, were it to be accepted.

“The support staff trade unions have already recognised the strength of the employers’ offer, with UNISON now joining Unite and GMB in balloting their members, and suspending proposed strike action.

“As the summer holiday period approaches, college employers are keen to get pay rises into lecturers’ pockets. The quickest way to do this is for the EIS-FELA to follow the example of its sister unions, cancel its industrial action, and ballot its members on the employers’ full and final pay offer.”