Demo

I had no classes this afternoon so I headed up to the Scottish Funding Council where there was a demo to support our proposed industrial action. We have moved, for the first time in years, to a position of national bargaining which was introduced by the Scottish Parliament. This means that, like teachers, we will hopefully move to a position where all lecturers are on a similar payscale. At present we are in a position where someone in exactly the same job as me in the Western Isles will be earning at least £10,000 a year less than me. Potentially more of a gap if they are not at the top of their payscale. And certainly more of a gap against the ten colleges that get higher wages than we do. the union has been campaigning hard for a harmonisation deal which reflects that we all do the same job and are deserving of the same wage like School teachers.

Sadly at the recent talks the college principals offered a 1% deal across the board which would only serve to widen the gulf. This is against a backdrop where millions have been paid out to college principals in golden handshake deals since the college mergers, at Coatbridge college the former principal awarded himself a £300k + pay off and two of the former Edinburgh principals got in excess of £200,000 as a pay off. This is from public funds. Also while the colleges plead poverty they have squirreled away in excess of £80 million country wide in what they are calling arms length trusts.

In one college elsewhere in Scotland it looks like while they are claiming poverty they are about to award their senior management team a 5.5% pay rise.

As a result we were at the Scottish Funding Council, who are responsible for allocating money to colleges, protesting the payouts, and arms length trusts and starting our fight for a deal which is fair for lecturers across Scotland.

It was good to hear that at the STUC rally in Glasgow yesterday the first minister said she was prepared to stand shoulder to shoulder with trade unions across the country, let's hope it's more than just hollow words.

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.