Renewed strikes could hit Scotland's colleges after lecturers voted to continue industrial action in a long-running pay dispute.

Members of the EIS-FELA (Education Institute for Scotland - Further Education Lecturers Association) union have been in dispute with pay body College Employers Scotland since 2022, which has brought both action short of a strike - including a boycott of results - and rolling strikes.

CES says it has offered an uplift of £5,000 over three years, and that this is £1,500 more than the Scottish Government's public sector pay policy (PPSP).

However, the union states that other public sector workers received pay settlements in 2022/23 and 2023/24 which were above PPSP in a period where there was record inflation and the offer on the table is not as good as given to other public sector workers.

Read More:

In an increasingly bitter dispute, some colleges have also engaged in 'deeming' whereby pay is withheld from lecturers taking part in action short of a strike, with some threatening to deduct 100%.

EIS-FELA members voted in favour of strike action at Ayrshire College and South Lanarkshire college earlier this month in response.

Under UK law mandates for industrial action must be renewed every six months, and the union balloted its members to continue.

In the ballot, 71% of those voting supported action short of a strike, and almost 67% supported strike action.

The EIS-FELA executive board opted on Monday to renew the industrial action short of strike action element as soon as possible to continue the resulting boycott in order to leverage pay negotiations.

Strike action could follow.

EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said: “College lecturers have delivered a clear mandate for the continuation of industrial action in support of a fair pay settlement, and this ballot result signifies the collective strength of Scotland’s college lecturers as they continue to fight for fair pay.

“Lecturers have faced increasingly aggressive tactics from employers, including the vindictive threat to ‘deem wages’ (aka deeming) – by withholding of up to 100% of salary from lecturers engaged in a legal programme of action short of strike. This despicable tactic from many college managements has only served to inflame the current situation and increase college lecturers’ determination to ensure the provision of quality Further Education to students of all ages, and particularly to working - class communities.

“With this fresh industrial action mandate now secured, the EIS will press ahead with issuing immediate notice of further ASOS action – including the continuation of the resulting boycott - and it will consider a new programme of strike action in the weeks and months ahead if an acceptable and fair pay offer is not forthcoming.

"We continue to urge the Scottish Government to stand up for college lecturers and help bring this public sector dispute to a resolution, as it has done previously for NHS staff and other public sector workers.”

College Employers Scotland expressed its "dismay" and said that just 67% of those who voted - less than a third of all college lecturers - supported further strike action. 

Gavin Donoghue, director of College Employers Scotland said:  “This ballot result means colleges will be facing prolonged disruption for the third time since May 2023.

"Colleges are flexible and adaptive, and have successfully mitigated the impact of previous strikes and two highly disruptive resulting boycotts. However, they cannot carry on doing this indefinitely. 

“Against a backdrop of unprecedented funding pressures, CES has offered the EIS-FELA a pay award worth an average of around £6,500 over four academic years. The offer includes a £5,000 pay rise over the first three years, which has already been overwhelmingly accepted by all support staff trade unions and is the same amount as the first three years of the EIS-FELA’s own four-year pay claim. 

“If accepted, the four-year offer would keep college lecturers in Scotland as the UK’s best paid, and would also boost the starting salary of a college lecturer to more than £41,000 from September next year. 

“Across the four-year pay period, the average college lecturer would be significantly better off with the employers’ pay offer than if their pay increases matched the Scottish Government’s public sector pay policy.

“Regrettably, the EIS-FELA has not ever formally balloted its members on the full details of this pay offer. Instead, it has chosen to continue asking its members to participate in damaging industrial action and a resulting boycott. 

“The latest vote for more industrial action represents only a minority of the total lecturing workforce at Scotland’s colleges.

"The result, combined with low strike turnout at the end of the last academic year, indicates most lecturers have little appetite for further disruption and want the dispute to be settled.”