Lecturers at NI further education colleges to strike over pay dispute

About 70,000 students attend Northern Ireland's FE colleges

Lecturers at all six further education (FE) colleges in Northern Ireland are to take strike action in a dispute over pay and workload.

FE staff belonging to the University and College Union (UCU) will stage a one-day strike on Wednesday, 24 March.

They will then begin further action short of a strike including a ban on overtime and additional duties.

The UCU said their members in FE Colleges had only received a 3.8% pay rise since 2013/14.

A spokesperson for the Department for the Economy said: "The Department is not directly involved in the negotiations on lecturers' pay and conditions that have been taking place between Trade Union Side and the College Employers' Forum."

About 70,000 students attend Northern Ireland's six FE colleges, according to figures from the Department for the Economy (DfE).

Many of those students take vocational courses and many study part-time.

But the UCU claimed that an existing pay offer would only have amounted to 7% over four years and a real terms pay cut.

It said that FE college lecturers had only received a "measly" 3.8% pay rise since 2013/14 and contrasted that with recent rises in teachers' pay.

Teachers in Northern Ireland accepted a 2% pay increase for 2019/20 and 2% again in 2020/21.

That followed a 2.25% pay rise in 2017-18 and a further 2% for 2018-19.

The UCU had previously declared a dispute with DfE over pay and workload, but has now escalated that to industrial action.

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In a UCU ballot on industrial action, 567 out of 641 members in FE Colleges voted for strike action.

A total of 615 said they supported action short of strike.

As a result, the UCU has now decided that a one-day strike will go ahead on 24 March.

"College lecturers have supported their students throughout the pandemic and deserve an increased pay offer just as much as school teachers," the UCU said.

Katharine Clarke, the union's Northern Ireland official, said there was "no excuse" for FE staff to continue to receive low pay compared to the rest of the education sector.

"The refusal of minister Diane Dodds and the Department for the Economy to intervene to secure more funding for colleges and a proper pay rise for college lecturers suggests they do not appreciate the value of FE," she said.

"If these unfair pay levels continue, staff will be driven out of the sector.

"Unless the minister moves to address the situation, including making representations to the Department of Finance, the sector will be hit with continuous industrial action starting with a one-day strike on 24th March."

Ms Clarke also said that UCU members would refuse to work overtime, take on additional duties and would work only to contract.

A Department for the Economy spokesperson added: "Further education colleges are employers in their own right and only if an agreement is reached between both parties through these negotiations, will the Department become involved in appraising any resulting business case.

"It is important that the negotiations are afforded the space needed to reach agreement and it would be inappropriate for the Department to comment on the current position or on the expected timescale for resolution."