Created on: 07 May 2024
The EIS has today issued a Mayday to the First Minister Humza Yousaf to intervene and college employers to come back to the negotiating table to end the long-running dispute in Scotland’s colleges, in the interests of students, staff and the wider community.
The call comes ahead of the traditional May Day weekend marches by trade unions internationally in celebration of workers, in which Scotland’s college lecturers will take a leading role alongside colleagues from the college support staff unions who are also in dispute with employers in pursuit of a fair pay rise that is now more than a year and a half overdue.
A meeting of the Executive of the EIS-Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA) today stressed the importance of the two-week pause in strike action, as an act of good faith to allow sufficient time and space for further discussions in the hope of reaching an agreement to end the dispute. Escalating strike action will resume, should no agreement be reached.
The General Secretary of the EIS, Andrea Bradley, has written to the First Minister, urging him to take direct action to help facilitate a fair pay offer that can bring an end to the industrial action, and allow lecturers to return to offering their full support to Scotland’s college students.
Commenting, Ms Bradley said, “On behalf of EIS-FELA members, I call on the First Minister to intervene to bring an end to this incredibly difficult and increasingly bitter dispute that looks set to worsen if college employers are allowed to proceed un-apprehended in their threats of ‘deeming’ and withholding of 100% of our members’ wages for weeks and months on end. Rather than acting in ways that will intensify the dispute, causing further disruption for students, college employers are urged to come back to the negotiation table with a view to resolution.”
“This Sunday, EIS-FELA members will be at the head of the May Day March in Glasgow in marked recognition by the Scottish trade union movement, of lecturers’ continuing struggle for fair pay and in defence of jobs.”
Ms Bradley added, “I ask that Scottish Government takes a public and unequivocal stance against deeming of wages by any public sector body that it funds, including colleges where the threat is live. College employers in Scotland are very close to setting a vindictive anti-trade union precedent that will smear the reputation of Scotland as a Fair Work nation before we arrive at 2025.”
“This May Day weekend, I urge the Scottish Government to show that it values the workers within the Further Education sector and facilitate a resolution to this industrial dispute, that offers parity of esteem to lecturers and support staff with other workers in the public sector, for the ultimate benefit of the students and communities that our colleges serve.”
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