NI colleges: UCU condemns 'insulting' pay offer

The UCU has warned of further industrial action

A union representing further education (FE) lecturers in Northern Ireland has described a pay offer as "insulting" when compared to what has been offered to schoolteachers.

Lecturers have been offered a 5% uplift plus a non-consolidated payment of £1,500 pro rata.

The University and College Union (UCU) has recommended its members reject the offer.

The union has also warned of potentially further industrial action.

What have teachers and lecturers been offered?

On Monday, Education Minister Paul Givan outlined a formal offer on schoolteachers' pay for 2021, 2022 and 2023 to the unions.

The pay offer equates to a cumulative total of 10.4%, plus £1,000 being applied to the other teachers' and leadership pay scales.

Newly-qualified teachers could see a starting salary of £30,000 - a 24.3% increase from their current salary of just over £24,000.

The Ulster Teachers' Union (UTU) has recommend that its members accept the latest pay offer.

The union's general secretary, Jacquie White said it had been a "huge step forward".

"With this pay deal we believe our profession can be stabilised so teaching in Northern Ireland can once again be respected as an attractive option for graduates who have until now been leaving in droves to work in other parts of GB, Ireland and beyond," she added.

These pay uplifts are to be made available from the Department of Education's (DE) budget.

There are more than 50,000 students taking hundreds of different courses at Northern Ireland's six FE colleges

In comparison, FE lecturers - who are funded by the Department for the Economy (DfE) - have been offered a 5% uplift plus a non-consolidated payment of £1,500 pro rata.

This follows the past two years of having 1% pay awards imposed.

The starting salary for a full-time FE lecturer in Northern Ireland is about £25,000 a year, although some staff are paid on an hourly basis or work part-time.

'Scandalous misuse of public money'

Katharine Clarke said the UCU believes funds used for a voluntary redundancy scheme could have been re-directed to make an improved pay offer

"I am absolutely staggered that any employer, minister, and government department could consider such disparity in remuneration for two sets of workers doing the same job as acceptable," the UCU's Northern Ireland official Katharine Clarke said.

The offer comes at a time when it is understood hundreds of college staff are completing a voluntary redundancy scheme.

The UCU claim most of the scheme beneficiaries are senior and corporate staff many of whom are approaching retirement age or are already it.

"We know that a 1% pay increase for lecturers' costs £1m to finance. From our engagement in redundancy consultation across colleges, the UCU estimate the cost of the voluntary severance scheme is between £10 - 15m, possibly more," Ms Clarke said.

"This money could have been re-directed to make an improved pay offer.

"We believe the minister and DfE's priorities are all wrong, some might say a scandalous misuse of public money."

Withhold marks

UCU has warned further industrial action is likely if the DfE "do not reverse the path they are currently travelling".

"Our members will withhold marks until such time as a fair and acceptable pay offer is made, this means students will be unable to graduate," Ms Clarke added.

"We do not engage in this kind of action lightly, but when our members are repeatedly treated as the poor relations of the education sector we have no alternative."

The DfE has been asked for comment.