Lecturers hit out at West College Scotland bosses

College lecturers took to the picket line yesterday in the latest action of a longrunning dispute over pay and conditions.

Staff at Paisley’s West College Scotland are accusing bosses of reneging on a pay deal reached more than a year ago.

They say there was a promise of equal pay for lecturers in all colleges as well as national terms and conditions.

This followed years of pay imbalance for lecturers doing the same jobs in different colleges, according to lecturers’ union the EIS.

Electrical engineering lecturer Gary Ross, of West College Scotland, was on the picket line yesterday.

He said: “We’re here today because management have reneged on a national pay deal that was agreed over a year ago.

“We’re back on strike for exactly the same reason we were on strike a year go.

“And that’s because equal pay isn’t going to be given to all lecturing staff across Scotland.

“We agreed a deal last March with management – the deal was that national pay was to start to be implemented over three years and that would start from the first of April this year.

“We haven’t had any implementation of that payment.

“Management are trying to say that payment should be inextricably linked with term and conditions, but if you actually read the agreement there is nothing on that agreement that says it’s inextricably linked with terms and conditions.

“We are seeking to negotiate a set of national terms and conditions for lecturing staff, but it’s not tied to pay. “Pay has already been agreed.” Mr Ross accused college management of putting a skewed interpretation on the agreement.

“But let’s be very, very clear. The agreement’s been publicly available for a year, you can view it. It’s a public document.

“The fact of the matter is, if you read the agreement, it doesn’t say anywhere that it’s inextricably linked with terms and conditions.”

Health and safety lecturer Douglas Porter, 59, said staff were out on strike yesterday to show solidarity against management’s claims that lecturers were looking for a nine per cent rise. “We are not,” he said. “We want them to honour a deal that we made a year ago that they are now backtracking on.”

Management forced the strike, Mr Porter added, and industrial action was a last resort.

“We were forced into it, and most students understand that,” he said.

Robert Parker of Paisley and District Trade Union Council was also on the picket line to offer support to the lecturers.

He said: “We’re here because their management – like lots of management over the last few years – are agreeing to something and then they’ve not moved forward on it.”

He added: “I think the basic way forward is management, either at a college level or at the Scottish Government level, should honour the agreement they signed up to last year.”

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “After more than a year of waiting and watching college managers talk down the agreement that they freely signed up to, Scotland’s further education lecturers have simply had enough.

“All that lecturers are asking is for the deal that was agreed by both sides to be honoured.

“Sadly, rather than working to deliver their commitments, college management have spent the last 13 months attempting to rewrite history and airbrush this binding agreement while simultaneously denigrating the hard-working lecturing staff in their colleges.”

The EIS said yesterday’s strike would be the first day in an escalating programme of industrial action.

A further one-day strike is planned for next Wednesday.

The strike will then escalate to two days per week and then three days per week unless the deal is honoured.

West College Scotland Principal Audrey Cumberford said yesterday she was disappointed the strike went ahead.

She added: “It’s particularly disappointing the EIS has chosen this course of action, given that talks are continuing and both sides have agreed to use the services of ACAS.

“This is a sector-wide dispute about pay, terms and conditions which has to be resolved at a national level.”

The college cancelled all classes yesterday but kept the campus open, including the library and catering services for students to do independent study.

Ms Cumberford added that she has written to local MSPs and MPs, assuring them the college is doing everything it can to minimise disruption to its students’ education.

She said: “This strike is not just about pay, it’s also about terms and conditions. Both matters are inextricably linked.

“A national average pay increase of nine per cent for lecturers over two years has been agreed, but before it can be implemented there also needs to be a national agreement on areas such as holiday entitlement and weekly teaching hours. Unfortunately, so far, that deal has not been reached.

“In the meantime, the college will do all we can to support our students during this important time in their studies.”