The EIS will open an indicative ballot on a revised ‘full and final’ pay offer from college employers, and will recommend to its members in the EIS Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA) to vote to accept the offer, the trade union announced yesterday.
The improved offer, which was received by EIS-FELA on Friday, was discussed at a special meeting of the EIS-FELA Executive Committee. Following discussion, it was agreed to recommend acceptance of the offer to members, in light of the significant improvement upon the previous offer and the repayment of any salary deducted by ‘deeming’ in response to Action Short of Strike.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “We will open an indicative ballot of our EIS-FELA members today, reflecting the EIS-FELA Executive’s decision to recommend that members accept this improved offer.
“This has been a long and painful campaign, with EIS-FELA members forced to engage in a long-running programme of industrial action to secure a fair pay offer from college employers and assurance that this will not come at the cost of jobs. The gains which have been achieved in this offer have been hard-won, and it is of great credit to our members that they have taken this stand and fought hard to secure this improved offer from colleges.
“The intervention of the Scottish Government, and their commitment of an additional £4.5M in funding, was key to the improvements in this offer. It will now be for EIS-FELA members to decide whether to accept the offer and bring this dispute and campaign of industrial action to an end.”
Ms Bradley continued, “Lecturers never wanted to be in this position, but were left with no choice but to engage in this programme of action as an option of last resort. During the worst cost of living crisis in living memory, our members have waited two years for a pay increase from their employers and have taken strike action and action short of strike to compel their colleges to come up with a fair offer.
“In addition to the significant increase in the value of the offer in Year 4 and the assurance in relation to no compulsory redundancies as a result of this deal, it would also compel all colleges who have ‘deemed’ pay from lecturers taking Action Short of Strike to repay that money to our members.
“This clearly highlights the unacceptable nature of the process of deeming – an anti-trade union tactic which has absolutely no place in our public sector or in any civilised society that respects and values the essential role that trade unions play in ensuring that our workplaces are fair.”
Ms Bradley added, “Our members in EIS-FELA should look out in their email inboxes for ballot information arriving this afternoon. It is important that all members have their say in this ballot, and use their vote to make their view known.
“The EIS-FELA Executive Committee is recommending that members should vote to accept the offer but, ultimately, it is our members themselves who will determine the result of this ballot.”
Note –While all planned strike action has been suspended for week beginning 26th August, the programme of Action Short of Strike (ASOS) currently remains in place, including the ongoing resulting boycott, pending the result of the indicative ballot.
The EIS has called on the Scottish Government and College Employers Scotland to take definitive action to ensure that college lecturers receive a fair and fully funded pay award.
College Employers Scotland have made clear to negotiators from the EIS-Further Education Lecturers Association (EIS-FELA) that their current offer would be funded through significant job losses across the publicly funded further education sector.
EIS-FELA members have been engaged in industrial action short of strike (ASOS), in the form of a resulting boycott and work to contract, since May 2023 and should have received their pay award one year ago.
Without an acceptable and fully funded offer, the EIS-FELA membership will escalate their industrial action campaign to include national and rolling strike action, alongside targeted strike action in the constituencies of key Scottish Government ministers, including the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education.
As politicians from the Scottish Government and all other parties at Holyrood return from the summer recess, EIS-FELA intends to take the campaign for a fully funded and fair pay award directly to parliament, with a rally planned outside the Scottish Parliament to coincide with the first FMQs of the new session.
College Employers Scotland have also this week refused a request made by the EIS to extend the current industrial action mandate. In the absence of such agreement from College Employers Scotland, the EIS has continued with the implementation of a national re-ballot for both action short of strike and strike action that has opened today (Thursday 31st August 2023).
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley, said, “Time is running out, on both the Scottish Government and College Employers Scotland, to avert the escalation of the crisis in Scotland’s colleges. No group of workers, least of all those in public sector institutions, should be told by their employers that they must sacrifice jobs to finance an already unacceptable pay offer.
“College Employers Scotland have yet to offer evidence that they have made clear to the Scottish Government that any acceptable pay award must be fully funded.
“The Scottish Government too must end its intransigence and avert this crisis by ensuring that no pay offer to hard working college lecturers is financed by job losses. EIS-FELA members are prepared to take substantial strike action, on top of action short of strike, in pursuit of a fully funded and fair pay award. They do so with the full backing of the EIS behind them.”
EIS-FELA President, Anne-Marie Harley, said, “College lecturers should have received a fair pay award a year ago and have been forced into the unacceptable situation of escalating their industrial action to a wide-ranging programme of strike action, including targeted strike action in the constituencies of Scottish Government ministers.
“We do so alongside a re-ballot of our members to ensure that we can continue this fight for fair pay for as long as it takes. EIS-FELA will never trade jobs for pay and both College Employers Scotland and the Scottish Government must act swiftly to avert strike action through providing a fully funded a fair pay award for college lecturers that does not result in job losses.”
A full programme of strike action is provided below:
Thursday 7th September: National strike Day.
Rolling Action Week One:
Monday 11th September: New College Lanarkshire and Orkney College.
Tuesday 12th September: Glasgow Clyde College and Sabhal Mor Ostaig.
Wednesday 13th September: Forth Valley College and UHI Moray.
Thursday 14th September: Glasgow Kelvin College and NESCoL.
Friday 15th September: Fife College and UHI North, West and Hebrides.
Rolling Action Week Two:
Monday 18th September: West College Scotland and Newbattle Abbey College.
Tuesday 19th September: UHI Argyle and Ayrshire College.
Wednesday 20th September: South Lanarkshire College and Shetland College.
Thursday 21st September: Dumfries & Galloway College and Dundee & Angus College.
Friday 22nd September: UHI Perth and Edinburgh College.
Rolling Action Week Three:
Monday 25th September: UHI Inverness and West Lothian College.
Tuesday 26th September: City of Glasgow College and Borders College.
Targeted Action: 2nd, 3rd and 4th October:
Glasgow Clyde College: First Minister’s constituency.
Fife College: Cabinet Secretary for Education’s constituency.
Dundee & Angus College: Deputy First Minister’s and Minister for FE’s constituency.
Teachers across Scotland have been offered the largest pay package in over twenty years, with most teachers seeing their salaries rise by £5,200 in April if the new pay offer is accepted.The EIS is to ballot its members on the latest pay offer to teachers, with a recommendation that the offer should be accepted.
The 28-month deal – the sixth offered to unions – has a cumulative value of 14.6% and would mean an overall increase of more than £6,100 for the 70% of classroom teachers who are at the top of their main grade pay scale.
It would amount to a cumulative rise of 33% for most teachers since January 2018 and would bring the starting salary for a fully qualified teacher – already the highest in the UK – to £38,650 after probation by January 2024.
The revised offer, agreed by the Scottish Government and COSLA, is:
1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 – a 7% uplift for all grades up to a ceiling of £80,000, where a cap of £5,600 (pro-rata) will apply
1 April 2023 to 31 December 2023 – a 5% uplift for all grades up to a ceiling of £80,000, where a cap of £4,000 (pro-rata) will apply
1 January 2024 to 31 July 2024 – a 2% uplift for all grades up to a ceiling of £80,000, where a cap of £1,600 (pro-rata) will apply
Cumulatively, these amount to an uplift of 12.4% by April 2023 and 14.6% from 1 January 2024.
Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Teachers make an invaluable contribution to the lives of our children and young people. This historic offer, if accepted by unions, would see teacher pay increase by 33% from January 2018 to January 2024.
“We have looked for compromise and we have arrived at a deal that is fair, affordable, and sustainable for everyone involved. The Scottish Government is supporting this deal with total funding of over £320 million across this year and next.
“This reflects our commitment to reach a fair agreement and avoid further disruption to children and young people’s education.
“I hope that teaching unions will now give their members the opportunity to consider this new offer and to suspend the planned industrial action next week. This would minimise any further disruption to learning, particularly in the run up to the SQA exam diet.”
COSLA’s Resources Spokesperson Councillor Katie Hagmann said: “We have reached a position today whereby we sincerely hope our Trade Union partners can take this revised offer to their membership for a vote.
“Scotland’s Council Leaders fully value all of their workforce and recognise the invaluable contribution teachers make to the lives of our children and young people.”
The EIS is to ballot its members on a revised pay offer to teachers that was presented yesterday by local authority employers, with a recommendation that the offer should be accepted.
The EIS is also suspending all planned industrial action while it ballots its members on the new offer.
A special meeting of the EIS Salaries Committee, comprised of teachers from across Scotland, has this evening unanimously agreed to ballot members on the new offer. The Committee also overwhelmingly agreed to recommend that members vote to accept the new pay offer.
Subsequent to the decision of the Salaries Committee, a special meeting of the EIS Executive Committee agreed to suspend all planned industrial action while members are consulted on the offer. The online ballot will open today (Friday) and run until 1000hrs on Friday 10th March.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “The view of our negotiators is that this deal represents the best that can be achieved in the current political and financial climate without a much more prolonged campaign of industrial action.
“It is through the determination and collective action of teachers and associated professionals across Scotland, led by EIS members, that we have improved this pay offer from an initial 2% for the current year to 7% for the current financial year, with additional increases of 5% and then 2% within the following financial year.
“This will result in the majority of teachers seeing a 12.3% increase on their current rate of pay by April of this year and by 14% by January 2024.”
Ms Bradley added, “This has been a long dispute which has been challenging for all concerned. Teachers have taken strike action as a last resort, and that strike action has delivered an improved pay offer that the EIS can credibly put to its members with a recommendation to accept.
“It is now for our members to decide whether to accept this offer, and it is our recommendation that they should do so.”
The national day of strike action over pay will be the first such action in Scotland’s schools for four decades – a clear indication of the current level of anger and frustration amongst teachers.
Following the announcement of the ballot result at lunchtime yesterday, the EIS Executive Committee held a special meeting and agreed an initial day of national strike action two weeks from today. Further industrial action dates will be agreed at a normal meeting of EIS Executive tomorrow.
EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “The EIS will be calling its members in all of Scotland’s schools out on strike action on Thursday 24 November, in the first day of national strike action on pay for almost forty years.
“We hoped not to get to this point and have given local authorities and the Scottish Government ample time to come up with a fair pay offer. But, with a pay-rise for teachers now more than seven months late, and with the last pay offer having been rejected by teachers almost three months ago, the blame for this move to strike action sits squarely with COSLA and the Scottish Government.
“They have sat on their hands for far too long, dithering and delaying while the soaring cost of living continues to erode the value of their pitiful offers to Scotland’s teachers.”
Ms Bradley added, “Teachers do not take strike action lightly, but have voted to do so in light of the continuing steep real-terms decline in their pay. Politicians who have lauded the invaluable work of teachers throughout the pandemic and during the ongoing period of recovery are now offering teachers a deep real-terms pay cut.
“This will never be acceptable to Scotland’s teachers or to the EIS, and that is why Scotland’s teachers will be taking strike action two weeks from today.”
Information on further strike action dates will be issued in due course.
TOM Tugenhadt was the latest candidate to be eliminated from the Conservative Party leadership contest when results of yesterday’s ballot was announced last night.
FOUR candidates now go through to the next round of voting. They are:
KEMI BADENOCH (58)
PENNY MORDAUNT (82)
RISHI SUNAK (115)
LIZ TRUSS (71)
The next round of voting takes place today – we’ll know the result at 3pm – and the shortlist will be reduced to two candidates before parliament breaks up on Thursday. Tory Party members will then choose between these final two candidates in a ballot that will take place over the summer recess.
The winner – and the UK’s next Prime Minister – will be announced on 5 September.
3pm UPDATE
KEMI Badenoch is the latest candidate to be eliminated following today’s vote. Exactly where Ms Badenoch’s votes go now will be crucial in determining which two of the final three candidates will fight it out for the votes of Tory party members over the summer to become our next Prime Minister.
Thousands of Glasgow City Council workers will be balloted for a new wave of industrial actions after overwhelmingly supporting strikes against low pay and pay discrimination.
99 per cent of GMB members across home care, Glasgow Life, education, and social work are prepared to take strike action against the council’s attempts to exclude over a fifth of posts included in the 2019 equal pay settlement from future liabilities.
Meanwhile, three-quarters of members in the city’s cleansing services said the fourteen points recently negotiated with the Council Leader for the future of the service and lowest-paid do not go far enough, with four-fifths saying they would be willing to strike again in response.
A statutory industrial action ballot of cleansing workers will now take place in December, while workers in services impacted by the council’s ongoing pay discrimination will commence a ballot in January.
GMB Scotland Organiser Sean Baillie said: “The lowest-paid workers in Glasgow City Council have been undervalued, exploited and ignored, and their anger is reflected in these overwhelming ballot results.
“It sends a clear message to the council and government that there must be change in Glasgow. Scotland’s biggest city has deep and chronic problems, it is blighted by low-pay and discrimination, and its budget has been hammered by years of cuts. That’s not talking Glasgow down, it’s simply stating facts.
“No political party has clean hands in this Glasgow story and politicians at all levels of representation should listen to the voices of these workers because it will need a response from them all.
“But our members aren’t going to stand on ceremony, they understand it’s only through their industrial strength that they can hope to make work better and ultimately make Glasgow better.”
Ahead of crunch talks next week GMB Scotland – the union for local government workers – has written to employer-side representatives for Scottish local authorities, warning bosses “must make good” on the delivery of an improved pay offer for council workers if strikes are to be avoided.
In an act of good faith, Scottish local government unions have suspended preparations for industrial action ballots of their memberships in school support staff and refuse and cleansing services ahead of meetings with representatives of the Conventions of Scotland Local Authorities (COSLA) next Wednesday 18 August.
Plans for industrial actions were put in place last month in response to the existing offer of £800 increase on the basic rate of pay for workers earning up to £25,000 a year, with COSLA chiefs refusing to commit to the delivery of the £500 “Thank You” payment and backpay provisions of the offer.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Drew Duffy said:“Strike action affecting school support staff and cleansing workers across Scotland can be avoided if COSLA bring forward an improved offer that is deserving of our members’ consultation.
“Weeks and months have now passed leaving key workers without a proper pay rise while Scottish Government Ministers and COSLA representatives pass the buck of responsibility to each other.
“The applause for our key workers from the political class has long since finished yet our members remain on the frontline of service delivery in our communities.
“Next week COSLA must make good on tabling an offer that reflects the proper value these workers deserve after everything they have done for all of us over the last eighteen months.”
UPDATE: FANS MAY NOT NOW BE ABLE TO TRAVEL THROUGH TO GLASGOW FOR NEXT WEEK’S CUP FINAL DUE TO COVID SPIKE
240 TICKETS WILL BE ALLOCATED BY BALLOT TO HIBS SEASON TICKET HOLDERS
Hibernian FC has confirmed its decision on the allocation of 300 tickets for the Scottish Cup Final next Saturday (May 22nd).
There will be an allocation of 60 tickets for players and staff so that their families can be in attendance to watch them participate in a National Cup Final.
All of the remaining tickets (240) will all be distributed to Season Ticket Holders by ballot. A proportion of these will be for hospitality season ticket members, and these will also be distributed by ballot.
Greg McEwan, Interim Chief Executive of Hibernian FC said: “We wish all of our supporters, and in particular the season ticket holders who have given us such amazing backing this season, could be with us on May 22nd.
“Unfortunately, the allocation agreed is small.
“We felt it fair to allocate tickets to the playing squad who have performed throughout the season, for family members to see them play in the final, and all of the rest are going to season ticket holders.
“We know that many will feel disappointed, and for that we are sorry, however we are sure supporters will understand the situation.
“Everyone at the Club, Jack and his staff, the players, all of us, will be doing our best to bring the Cup back to Easter Road as the best way to reward the amazing loyalty and support we have been shown.
“Good luck to everyone in the ballot.”
Season ticket holders will be invited to apply for a ticket through the ballot and more information on this process will be issued by email to season ticket holders as well as posted on the club website.
Jobcentre workers are to be balloted in a move that could lead to industrial action. The move is in response to the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) insistence that staff and customers return to jobcentres to deliver face to face services.
Civil service union PCS says that since 12 April, DWP “has been asking considerably more staff to return to jobcentres to carry out face to face interviews with customers. This is despite staff working from home successfully for up to a year, carrying out these interviews by phone.”
The union argues “that coronavirus still poses a threat to safety and that to extend services in jobcentres now is unsafe, and places staff, their families and customers at risk. We are therefore balloting PCS members working in jobcentres to ask if they would be prepared to take industrial action over DWP’s decision.”
The ballot is consultative and a further ballot of members would be required before strike action could take place.
PCS said its demands include “stopping the extension of face to face services, with face to face interviews taking place only with those identified as most vulnerable until the vaccine programme is complete and low rates of infection have been sustained for a significant period.
“We are also asking that DWP sticks to the agreement made in autumn last year, that work coaches can decide how to progress their own workload, including making decisions about how to interview customers.”
GMB members across Scottish Local Government have overwhelmingly rejected the Scottish Government’s £800 increase for staff earning under £25,000 a year, sending a clear message to politicians and employers: “We’re worth more.”
Following the close of the union’s consultative ballot, 93 per cent of members voted to reject the offer tabled by the Finance Secretary Kate Forbes in the recent Scottish Budget, increasing the prospect of significant industrial action across local services this summer.
GMB, which represents 20,000 local government workers, pre-dominantly in services like home care, refuse, school support, and roads and maintenance, will now write to the First Minister and COSLA leaders to call for fresh negotiations and a significantly improved offer.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser for Public Services Drew Duffy said: “This is a clear demonstration from key workers across Scottish local government that Kate Forbes’ valuation of their efforts isn’t anywhere near good enough.
“It’s been a wretched year and a desperate decade for council workers, especially the lowest paid and the services they deliver. Home carers, refuse workers, and school support staff have got on with the job for all of us despite being failed on PPE, testing and safe working guidelines. Furthermore, they did this after years of political austerity, which cut their pay in real-terms and gutted their services.
“After the applause and all the political platitudes, to recognise their dedication and sacrifice with an increase that won’t amount to much more than £10 a week for many staff is derisory, and the message to Ministers, politicians on the election trail, and councils is clear: “We’re worth more.””
