The warning comes amid prolonged disputes between college staff and their employers across Scotland, involving proposed redundancies, pay reductions, and other grievances, the Herald Scotland reported. The EIS-Further Education Lecturers Association members at the City of Glasgow College have resorted to multiple strikes, protesting against the proposed redundancies, it added.
Union leaders have cautioned the Scottish government against allowing further education institutions to carry out staff cuts without restraint.
The warning comes amid prolonged disputes between college staff and their employers across Scotland, involving proposed redundancies, pay reductions, and other grievances, the Herald Scotland reported.
The EIS-Further Education Lecturers Association members at the City of Glasgow College have resorted to multiple strikes, protesting against the proposed redundancies, it added.
Additionally, EIS-FELA launched an anti-bullying dispute alleging unfair targeting of union members with pay cuts by NESCol, aimed at undermining industrial action.
Seeking urgent resolution to the ongoing conflicts, the Scottish Trades Union Congress penned a letter to Graeme Dey MSP, Minister for Higher and Further Education.
STUC General Secretary Rozanne Foyer, emphasized that unchecked staff and pay cuts in colleges could trigger a wave of cost-cutting measures across the entire sector.
“Simply put, if Edinburgh College, NESCol, and the City of Glasgow College senior management succeed in their anti-union cuts plans, the Scottish Government are, by proxy, giving carte blanche to all Further Education institutions to cut at will. This is a litmus test of the Scottish Government’s resolve,” he said in the report.
Foyer stressed that Scotland’s commitment to becoming a Fair Work Nation by 2025, ensuring equal access to job security and employment opportunities is now in jeopardy.
She expressed concerns that publicly-funded employers being allowed to cut hundreds of jobs is contradictory to this goal.
“We cannot be a Fair Work Nation if college workers are forced to take strike action to get a decent cost-of-living pay rise, as they have done every year for nearly a decade. We cannot be a Fair Work Nation if we allow our colleges to target union reps and test the water on compulsory redundancies of lecturers,” she said.
The EIS-FELA rallied outside the Scottish Parliament in response to these ongoing disputes, further highlighting the urgency of government intervention.
Foyer then urged the Scottish Government to intervene and facilitate a resolution, emphasizing that it is a crucial test of their commitment to making Scotland a Fair Work nation.
The Scottish Government has maintained a “No Compulsory Redundancy” policy in its public sector pay strategy since 2007. However, questions have arisen regarding how this policy aligns with the plans of public colleges to reduce staff. The Scottish Government has distanced itself from the disputes, clarifying that colleges are not directly bound by the Government’s public sector pay policy.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government emphasized their commitment to Fair Work as the guiding principle for all decisions.
They stated that employers and trade unions should collaborate to ensure fair treatment of workers. While incorporated colleges are not directly obligated by the Public Sector Pay Policy, the government expects them to consider it.
The government also encouraged constructive collaboration between management and unions to safeguard jobs and called for negotiations to resolve the ongoing disputes and industrial action.
