College lecturers' pay offer unacceptable - union

College Employers Scotland said its pay offer cost £51m

A union representing college lecturers has described a revised pay deal from employers as "unacceptable".

College Employers Scotland said the flat cash pay settlement was their "full and final" offer.

But the EIS-Further Education Lecturers' Association (EIS-FELA) said it represented a real terms pay cut.

The union has previously said that industrial action would be escalated to a national strike without an acceptable pay offer.

Some union members are taking part in a "resulting boycott", marking student assessments but not entering the marks in college recording systems.

Lecturers have been offered a £2,000 pay rise in 2022/23 and a further £1,500 in 2023/24, providing an overall £3,500 uplift for all college staff over the two years.

College Employers Scotland said this would proportionately benefit staff on lower pay.

But it also said the £51m cost of delivering the pay rise would still require "painful decisions" to be made on jobs and courses.

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EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: "College lecturers have been waiting since September 2022 - now nine whole months amidst a cost-of-living crisis - for a pay award.

"It is unacceptable that after all this time, college employers could only table a marginally improved offer that still amounts to a significant real terms pay cut.

"The Scottish government simply cannot stand idly by allowing this situation to persist. It must respond positively to EIS-FELA's call for emergency funding to address the deepening crisis in further education."

EIS-FELA president Anne Marie Harley said the employers "presented no plan for addressing the growing crisis in the college sector."

She added: "There are now only a few weeks to avoid a fiasco whereby students will not receive results, and the blame for this lies squarely with both college employers and the Scottish government. Both must act now."

Gavin Donoghue, director of College Employers Scotland, urged the EIS-FELA to take the offer to its members and pause the resulting boycott.

He said: "Employers simply cannot afford to go beyond these final proposals for a cumulative £3,500 pay rise for staff, as the £51m cost of delivering them will already require painful decisions to be made on jobs and courses.

"We urge our trade union colleagues to be pragmatic and take the employers' offer to their members for consideration, so that colleges can get back to providing the world-class learning experience that students rightly expect and demand."

The sector saw cuts of almost £52m in this academic year as well as the removal of £26m in funding.

College lecturers held a rally outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday calling for an end to the "crisis" in further education.

Last week the union called for the Scottish government to step in with additional funding to bail out the sector, with some colleges facing compulsory redundancies to make ends meet.