Commenting on the EIS-FELA’s launch of fresh national strikes at colleges, a spokesperson for College Employers Scotland (CES) 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.”