Created on: 02 May 2024
The EIS has given notice to all of Scotland’s Further Education colleges of a further programme of escalating strike action in a long running dispute over pay.
This marks a further increased escalation in the pay dispute, where members of the EIS-Further Education Lecturers Association (EIS-FELA) have been taking action short of strike since the middle of February and have already taken a number of days of national strike action.
College lecturers should have received a pay uplift at the beginning of September 2022 and, following over a year of protracted negotiations, College Employers Scotland continue to claim that their ‘full and final’ pay offer of £5,000 over three years is a fair pay offer for college staff. However, for many EIS-FELA members, the amount of money tabled in the second year of this offer sits below current public sector pay policy.
EIS-FELA does not accept that its members should be treated any differently to any other public sector worker and are simply seeking a pay offer which is reflective of their professional role in education and in parity with their colleagues in the rest of the public sector.
At an EIS-FELA Executive Committee meeting, members have decided not to programme any strike action for the weeks beginning 6th and 13th May, as a show of goodwill and to afford an opportunity for continuing discussions in an attempt to reach a resolution.
In the event that no resolution is reached, then beginning on Monday 20th May, as an escalation of their current industrial dispute, a further programme of strikes will take place with EIS-FELA members in all colleges taking strike action each day for nine days over a three-week period.
Escalating Action Week One:
Monday 20th and Thursday 23rd May
Escalating Action Week Two:
Tuesday 28th, Thursday 30th and Friday 31st May
Escalating Action Week Three:
Monday 3rd, Tuesday 4th, Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th June