Created on: 05 Aug 2024
A meeting of the Emergency Committee of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has agreed two more weeks of strike action, as a long-running dispute over pay in Scotland’s colleges continues.
The announcement follows a recent re-ballot of members of the EIS Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA), which demonstrated a continuing strong commitment amongst Scotland’s FE lecturers to industrial action in pursuit of a long-overdue pay settlement.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, "Our members continue to stand firm in displaying their strong and unwavering commitment to industrial action in pursuit of a fair pay settlement from college employers.
"Scotland's FE lecturers have not had a pay increase since September 2021 and, for the past three years, have had to endure a sharp decline in the real-terms value of their salaries throughout the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory."
Ms Bradley added, "It is right that EIS-FELA continues to fight for a just pay award for lecturers, in the face of intransigence from College Employers Scotland and an unwillingness so far on the part of the Scottish Government to step up and play its part in bringing about a satisfactory resolution.
"I have written to the Minister for FE again today, urging the Scottish Government to act in accordance with its recent manifesto promises to stand up for workers and stand up for public services, by putting a stop to deeming by college employers and by providing a small amount of funding in comparison to that given to other public sector pay settlements to bring this dispute to an end."
The meeting of the EIS Emergency Committee has now authorised an additional six days of strike action at all colleges, over a 2-week period.
Further action will be considered by a special meeting of the EIS Executive next week, with additional action set to be scheduled in the near future should no satisfactory offer emerge within the coming weeks.
New Strike Dates: