Achi news desk-
In addition, the SFC said that Scottish colleges have already spent a total of £6.7 million on staff restructuring efforts in 2021-2022. The SFC estimates that restructuring will cost colleges a further £21.4 million by the end of the 2023-2024 academic year.
Savings are expected to come through various means, from voluntary redundancies (expected to account for 1,103 FTEs) to compulsory redundancies (154 FTEs).
The report states that staff costs account for 70% of the college’s expenditure and are “the main focus of savings as colleges seek to balance their budgets in the current fiscal environment.”
This is likely to cause further conflict, the SFC reported.
“Given the experience of industrial relations within the sector to date, this level of reduction in staff is likely to lead to widespread industrial action.”
Although the current dispute is the latest in a decade-long cycle of conflict, it is unique in a few ways. These new developments show a change in national bargaining and how College Employers Scotland (CES) – which represents employers – and unions engage with each other.
As cost pressures weigh on colleges, many are looking for ways to make savings. Although these concerns pre-date the current negotiations, it is likely that the disparity between union demands and employer proposals will push colleges further beyond their financial limits: CES has said that £30 million will be needed in extra to meet the current union wage claim, money they demand colleges do’. t has.
The current pay deal has been under negotiation since EIS-Fela, the union representing lecturers and support staff unions GMB, Unite, and Unison presented pay claims for £5,000 flat cash for all staff in the summer of 2022.
Already, the fact that a salary claim from 2022 is still unresolved puts the current dispute in uncharted territory. The first two proposals from CES—a 2% increase and then a 3.5% increase over two years—were rejected and sparked industrial action votes by unions, spurred in part by employer claims that colleges might need to lay off workers. to fund the salary. increase.
When CES introduced a two-year offer of £3,500 in June 2023, multiple colleges considered compulsory redundancies.
Attempts to make workers redundant at Edinburgh College, Dundee and Angus College and Glasgow City College – where up to 100 jobs were at risk – were thwarted in each case by strike or threatened strike by EIS-Fela, the union representing lecturers.
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State Colleges of Scotland: Find all articles in this series here
Industrial action is nothing new in the college sector, but the tactics used in 2023 are unusual. While aid unions have acted on strike, EIS-Fela has turned to a form of action short of a strike (ASOS) known as a boycott of results.
At their briefing for MLAs this month, EIS-Fela explained their strategy.
“While observing a resulting boycott, lecture staff will continue to deliver teaching and learning, continue assessment, mark assessment, provide feedback to students and track their progress.”
But, crucially, they will not present student results. This puts student progression at risk.
CES has since presented a second “full and final offer” of £5,000 over three years – £2,000 for year one, £1,500 for year two and £1,500 for year three. This was a counter-proposal to the union wage claim for an increase of £8,000 over three years, submitted in October 2023.
The offer also came with a promise that there would be no job losses directly linked to this wage offer, a concession to a previous demand from the unions.
Gavin Donoghue, director of CES, insisted that the financial and political climate means that this is as far into the coffers as colleges can get.
“The money that has already been agreed by College Employers Scotland has been set aside, so that’s an obligation that colleges know they have to pay. It was difficult, and many colleges have said it was beyond the limits of affordability for them.”
CES estimates the cost of the current three-year £5,000 proposal to be £72.5 million. The union’s wage claim of £8,000 would cost more than £100 million, said Mr Donoghue.
“That’s at least an additional £30 million, every year, continuously from 2025-26 onwards. You have the compounding effect of the first three years of the deal and that has to be sustained.”
EIS-Fela and Unisein have rejected the offer. EIS-Fela have explained that they feel that the proposal represents a pay rise of 11.5% over three years for most lecturers but that it is below inflation levels in the same period, whilst acknowledging that it would n represent a significant percentage bonus for the lowest paid support workers. .
A spokesman for MSPs recently said: “It does not address the financial hardship that its members have endured over the past two and a half years.”
Support staff unions GMB and Unite have voted to accept the offer, but Unison is far more in talks than their votes.
Negotiations from 2023 have been carried over to 2024 and the disputes have merged. EIS-Fela renewed its mandate for industrial action and a boycott of new results in January, after failing to reach the turnout threshold for a previous vote held at the end of 2023.
Union messages now place responsibility for resolving the dispute squarely on the shoulders of the Scottish Government.
“The Scottish Government must be convinced to ensure that College Employers Scotland can facilitate a fully funded salary award, one that meets the expectations of professional lecturing staff in Scotland,” EIS-FELA told MEPs .
Mr Donoghue, however, believes this is a misguided attempt. The government has stepped in to fund pay decisions before, but the political and financial climate feels different this year.
“All the evidence says that the Scottish Government is not coming in. Everything they’ve said, everything they’ve done, everything they’ve put in writing, there’s never been a glimmer.”
So with a new boycott threatening to disrupt the end of the academic year, employers have also adopted a new tactic: colleges will withhold pay – up to 100% – from lecturers taking part in the boycott, even if they continue in their other duties.
The tactic has sparked controversy. After the Herald first reported the employers’ intentions, many colleges issued new statements softening their position. Information about the February meeting between college leaders and CES has been closely guarded despite multiple Freedom of Information requests.
Still, colleges seem determined to stick to the strategy, and their determination will be tested as the academic year comes to an end.
