THE “absolute scandal” of SNP-Green Scottish government cuts alongside “profiteering” at colleges must be defeated, the Scottish TUC’s leader demanded toay.
STUC general secretary Roz Foyer gave her support to striking lecturers in a speech to the EIS-FELA conference today, just hours after the college workers’ union announced an escalated wave of rolling strikes from April 16 to May 3.
Workers have rejected the latest “final” offer from employers, worth around 16 per cent from September, as a real-terms pay cut after more than two years without a pay uplift.
College Employers Scotland’s Gavin Donoghue called the decision to announce more strikes “deeply regrettable.”
He said “employers simply could not afford to go beyond” the tabled offer “given that the sector’s budget is set to be cut by a further £32.7 million” by the Scottish government.
The government said ministers would “continue to engage” but added: “It is of course for the college unions and employers to negotiate pay, terms and conditions.”
Ms Foyer said the government’s response fell well short of trade unionists’ expectations.
She told EIS-FELA conference in Perth that it was time for “college employers step up – and to make the Scottish government pay up .”
Offering delegates support in the fight for “the future of further education,” she said: “Our further education system is being destroyed at the very time when we most need it, through years of underfunding by government and profiteering by the college bosses.
“What will it take for the Scottish government to realise that it doesn’t matter how many reports they commission into education and skills … if they are not prepared to fundamentally change the way that further education is funded in Scotland?
“When will they realise that it doesn’t matter if they talk about wanting to deliver fair work across our public sector if they are happy to oversee public money going into a sector where the workers have been left without a decent pay rise since 2022?
“It is an absolute scandal, that we have a situation where the Scottish government and Colleges Scotland plead poverty, and talk about cuts to badly needed staff, when those at the top of our FE institutions, are infamous for their eye-watering salaries.
“This is morally wrong, this is an abuse of public funding, and it is profiteering of the worst kind.”
