Members of EIS-FELA, the union representing lecturers in Scottish colleges, voted last week to approve the offer from colleges and bring an end to the industrial dispute which has been going on since last year. The offer had already been ratified by Colleges Scotland Employers’ Association on behalf of the colleges, so agreement between colleges and the EIS-FELA has been confirmed.

The agreement has been welcomed in colleges and provides the sector with an opportunity to reconcile differences, restore stability, and heal some wounds after a difficult period.

Read more: Colleges face ‘widening’ income gap

More news: College staff on strike are ‘best-paid in UK’, employers claim

Background: College teacher pay higher in Scotland than England

In discussions with college principals, chairs, and other senior staff members I have been speaking to since the deal was brokered, the overriding emotion espoused has been one of relief. But all have outlined concerns over the financial implications of the deal.

Costly outcomes

When national bargaining was reintroduced to the sector, few expected the outcomes to be so costly. The Scottish government has invested more than £100 million into national bargaining in three years, which has increased staff salaries and paid for improvements in terms and conditions, and that is a huge positive for the sector.

Including the deal just agreed, over £73 million additional money is going into lecturers’ pay from 2017-20. The lecturing staff do a terrific job in our colleges and deserve to be paid well, but they are now so well-paid that colleges are struggling to afford the significant increases they have received.

The deal agreed last week will cost colleges £17.5 million and will be funded entirely from colleges making cuts, which realistically means jobs will be lost.  Throughout the recent negotiations to settle the dispute, the EIS-FELA representatives told us they didn’t believe colleges were struggling financially and shrugged their shoulders when we stated these cuts would cost jobs in the sector.

Scotland’s Colleges 2019, recently published by Audit Scotland, lays bare the financial reality of colleges in Scotland: 12 of the incorporated colleges are forecasting recurring financial deficits by 2022-23 with 18 reporting operating deficits. Of the six non-incorporated colleges, only one is not projecting a recurring deficit during the next five years.

Most colleges cannot afford this deal and will be forced to cut their cloth accordingly. 

Even before this deal - which provides lecturers with an additional £400 unconsolidated and £1,500 consolidated - lecturers in Scotland were already the best-paid in the UK, earning approximately £10,000 more than their English counterparts. And the pay harmonisation rises from 2017 to 2020, combined with the pay deal just agreed with the EIS-FELA, equate to a national average increase of over £5,000 - or more than 13 per cent.

Significant improvements

Lecturers have also benefited from significant improvements in terms and conditions over the same 2017-20 period, including the introduction of 62 days’ holiday per year, 23 hours per week of class contact time and excellent pensions.

Ultimately, both sides were forced to make concessions - as should be the case in negotiations - but this is the first time the EIS-FELA has compromised since national bargaining was reintroduced. In return for additional pay, clarification was reached on flexible working arrangements and on observation of learning. Colleges are also pleased that support staff and lecturing staff pay deals have been brought into line with both extending until September 2020.

This was the third time in the past four years that the EIS-FELA has been out on strike action, so we hope they have learned that compromise is the only way forward and that they rethink their strike culture.

The EIS-FELA crossed a line by deliberately targeting the students when they withheld assessment results from colleges and went out on strike during the exam diet. But whatever happens in the future, both sides should agree to protect the students and ensure that their futures and experiences in colleges across the country are prioritised.

I have no doubt that both sides need to learn lessons from this protracted dispute and we will be happy to sit down with the trade unions and other key stakeholders to do all we can to work together and ensure that our collective focus is on making colleges the very best they can be for everyone.

Shona Struthers is chief executive of Colleges Scotland