Created on: 26 Feb 2021
College lecturer members have overwhelmingly voted in favour of taking strike action to defend lecturing jobs within Scotland’s Further Education Colleges.
A statutory industrial action ballot, arranged by the EIS for its FE lecturer members, closed yesterday. In the ballot, 92% of members voted in favour of strike action to protect lecturing jobs, on a turnout of 60%.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said, “Lecturers in Scotland’s Further Education Colleges have sent a very strong message to their employers with this extremely clear ballot result. Our members will not accept the continuing threat from colleges to remove lecturing jobs and replace them with lower qualified, and more poorly paid, posts.”
Mr Flanagan continued, “The EIS is clear that colleges seeking to cut lecturing jobs in this way, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, is simply unacceptable and must be stopped. Education remains key to successful recovery from the impact of the pandemic, and lecturers are essential to the delivery of a quality learning experience for Scotland’s college students.”
Mr Flanagan added, “The EIS Emergency Committee will consider the ballot result next week, and determine the next steps to be taken in the campaign to protect lecturing jobs. In the meantime, the EIS remains committed to ongoing discussions with college employers, in the hope that strike action may yet be avoided.”