BOSSES at Edinburgh College stand accused of enforcing a “de facto lockout” of teaching staff today — a year after sacking a union rep.

The pay dispute in Scottish colleges has entered its third year, with colleges now coming under pressure from lecturers’ union EIS-FELA to drop controversial plans to dock large proportions of pay from workers undertaking action short of strike, such as marking boycotts. 

Some colleges have backed down, but Edinburgh principal Audrey Cumberford, who fired a union rep last year, emailed lecturers on August 13 to demand they ditch industrial action and complete assessment marking by the next day, or face losing 100 per cent of their pay, whether they are on strike or not.

Blaming years of cuts to the sector and “the ongoing position of the Scottish government to refuse to fund a pay award” for the ongoing national dispute, Ms Cumberford said she understood workers’ “frustration.” 

But, she threatened: “Unless there is an agreed reason for a resulting delay we will proceed with deducting pay including and from Thursday of this week.”  

EIS-FELA branch convener Mike Cowley agreed with Ms Cumberford on the source of the dispute.

He told the Star: “It took £77m to settle the bin dispute. It would cost £5m to settle ours.

“The Scottish government’s strategy of selective intervention places further education firmly at the back of the queue.”

But branding the principal’s anti-trade union tactics a “de facto lockout,” he added: “Audrey Cumberford acknowledges the lack of resourcing from the Scottish government as the primary cause of delaying a satisfactory settlement.

“Why then does she continue to refuse a joint approach alongside Edinburgh College EIS-FELA members?

“Instead, she punches downwards, deducting 100 per cent of our wages for what amounts to one per cent of our work.”

The Scottish government has been approached for comment.