College lecturers will strike on Thursday

Shetland College. Photo: Google. 

College lecturers will walk out on strike on Thursday after a sudden escalation in their dispute.

It follows national concerns that lecturer jobs could be replaced by instructor posts.

Earlier this year members of the EIS-Fela union were preparing to walk out following a 91 per cent vote in favour of striking.

Hopes had emerged that the dispute could be resolved.

But local branch secretary Andrew Anderson told The Shetland Times on Wednesday that management has failed to ratify an agreement reached during negotiations.

“We are on strike tomorrow,” he said.

“On 12th March both EIS-Fela negotiators and management negotiators from Colleges Scotland reached agreement.

“Each side was then to go to their executives for ratification. EIS-Fela got that ratification, but management side refused to ratify it.”

He said most of the agreement reached on 12th March “was proposals from management”.

“In other words, management decided not to ratify their own agreement.”

A statement from Colleges Scotland has described the union’s decision as extremely disappointing after what has already been a very difficult and challenging year for staff and students across Scotland.

It said the union was breeching national agreed protocols by taking unnecessary industrial action while meaningful discussions were still ongoing.

It said a request to suspend the strike while talks continue was refused by the EIS-FELA on Tuesday.

It added that claims colleges were trying to replace lecturer posts with less qualified and less well paid staff were simply not true.

Colleges Scotland said the strike was extremely disappointing and said it hoped ongoing discussions could lead to a positive outcome.