College’s assurance over strike
‘We’ll minimise impact on students’
Forth Valley College bosses say they are confident of minimising the impact on students ahead of planned industrial action by lecturers.
The EIS-FELA industrial action - including strike dates and action short of strike - has been called due to a national pay dispute and will begin next week.
EIS-FELA lecturing staff are in dispute over more pay through the national bargaining process and have posted notice of 14 proposed days of action - three in April and 11 in May - the first starting on Wednesday, April 20.
As a result all full-time, evening, apprenticeship programmes and school partnership provision at FVC will be cancelled on that day, unless alternative arrangements are put in place by individual departments, with students involved being contacteddirectly to advise them of this.
Any interviews linked to 2022/23 recruitment planned for the first day of action will go ahead or will be rescheduled and the exam programme and commercial training courses will go ahead as planned.
The college says no students will be disadvantaged in regards to their bursary, childcare or EMA funding as a consequence of the industrial action.
The Learning Resource Centres, refectories and gyms will remain open. However, the salons and the Gallery Restaurant at the Stirling Campus will be closed for the day.
FVC principal Professor Ken Thomson OBE said: “For 2021/22, EIS-FELA have rejected a £850 pay offer, consolidated on all pay points and a one-off £200 non-consolidated payment.
“The college sector is already facing significant challenges in the months to come due to funding cuts and the implications these may have. Along with others, we are also focusing on recovery following the pandemic and the affect this has had on the sector.
“Our students have already had to overcome so much over the past two years.
“The proposed action including strike days, working to rule and a resulting boycott, could potentially have a serious detrimental effect for these students in progressing their qualifications and their future opportunities.
“We are currently considering our resourcing options and the impact on our students. We are also putting measures in place in order to balance the need to offer a service whilst also mitigating the results of any action taken. With appropriate planning in place we are confident we can minimise any impact on our students.
“College Employers Scotland continue to meet with EIS-FELA in the hope they can reach agreement and avoid industrial action.”
Alex Linkston, chair of the Employers’ Association, said: “We cannot offer money that we do not have. Less than one in four college lecturers in Scotland have voted to strike.
“Our offer pushes colleges to the absolute financial max. We have offered all lecturing staff an extra £1,000 this year, equivalent to an average increase of 2.2 per cent. This is more than teachers, civil servants, police, and fire service who have already accepted. Part of the reason such a significant offer is on the table is employers’ want to acknowledge the outstanding work carried out by college staff throughout the pandemic.”
EIS General Secretary, Larry Flanagan, said however: “Over the course of the COVID 19 pandemic thus far, college lecturers have stood up and delivered for students.
“They have gone above and beyond in ensuring that those who attend college, to gain the skills and qualifications they need, have continued to receive high standards of teaching and learning.
“They have done this despite an EIS survey showing EIS-FELA members experiencing rising levels of stress and workload, while many college lecturers have received no wellbeing check in from their employers.
“Words of gratitude, and a pay offer that does not begin to address the pressures on the cost of living, are not enough.
“The EIS urges the Employers’ side of the NJNC to accept EISFELA’S offer of further negotiations and to return to the table with a pay offer that avoids unnecessary and wholly avoidable industrial action in the FE sector.”
Planned strike action is set for April 20, 26, 27 and May 4-5, 10-12, 17-19 and 24-26.
Updates and guidance for staff, students, partners, stakeholders and members of the public can be found at https://www.forthvalley. ac.uk/student-info/ industrial-action