Strike action takes place among college lecturers

The lecturers dispute over pay escalated on Tuesday when a second day of strike action took place at Shetland College.

Staff, who formed a picket line at the Gremista premises, are hopeful that further talks this week can help resolve the deadlock.

But they say they are prepared to take further industrial action if the talks fail.

It follows an earlier strike in January, when members of the EIS-FELA staged a walkout.

The strikes come after two years of pay negotiations which led to a 2.5 per cent increase covering 2017 to 2020.

But lecturers say the offer falls short of that awarded to non-lecturing staff.

EIS-FELA branch secretary Andrew Anderson said this week’s strike had gone well.

“The support from the lecturing staff is exactly the same as it was in the strike three weeks ago, so it is very good,” he said.

“It’s a national strike. There’s another national negotiating meeting on Thursday, so we’re hoping this will put pressure on the management to come back with a reasonable offer in response to the pay claim that was made in December.

“We’re hoping that that offer which management come with would be similar to what the support staff have already been offered and agreed across all the colleges in Scotland and would reflect a public sector pay deal that Unison and other unions have agreed as well.”