COLLEGE lecturers have announced another two weeks of strike action across Scotland as their three-year fight for a pay rise enters a new term.

Despite some of the highest inflation in decades, lecturers at Scotland’s colleges have not had a pay rise since 2021, amid growing cuts, casualisation and redundancies in a sector grappling with £30 million slashed from its budget by the SNP Scottish government this year.

Winning renewed mandate for strike action last month, EIS-FELA have now announced six days of strikes over two weeks, August 20-22 and 27-30.

College Employers Scotland (CES’s) Gavin Donoghue branded the strikes “deeply regrettable,” saying: “Given the perilous state of the college sector’s finances, further strikes from the EIS-FELA will not result in an improvement.”

Undeterred, EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “Our members continue to stand firm in displaying their strong and unwavering commitment to industrial action in pursuit of a fair pay settlement from college employers.

“Scotland’s further education lecturers have not had a pay increase since September 2021 and, for the past three years, have had to endure a sharp decline in the real-terms value of their salaries throughout the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory.

“It is right that EIS-FELA continues to fight for a just pay award for lecturers, in the face of intransigence from CES and an unwillingness so far on the part of the Scottish government to step up and play its part in bringing about a satisfactory resolution.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said further education minister Graeme Dey had “engaged with both trade unions and college employers on multiple occasions to encourage progress towards a resolution of the dispute.” 

They said: “The Scottish government will continue this engagement as both parties work to reach a settlement which is fair and affordable.”