NI lecturers take new strike action

Lecturers, led by UCU are seeking pay parity with school-teachers; currently lecturers on average earn £3,400 a year less than teachers in schools for doing similar work. At the end of February the case for pay parity has been rejected by the governments Public Sector Pay Committee despite support from Peter Hain's office. Lecturers have also had support from all of Northern Ireland's main political parties.

UCU officials met with the employers last Wednesday expecting a pay offer due from last September. No offer was made.

Commenting on the meeting UCU's regional official Jim McKeown said: 'The employers made no offer - instead they sought to rub salt in the wound by backtracking  from the commitments on pay parity and back-dating they had already given. Lecturers have been bitterly disappointed by the decision of government not to implement pay parity - the employers used that to try to attack lecturers terms and conditions of service - talk about kicking people when they are down.

Representatives of UCU's branches met on Wednesday evening and resolved to keep the campaign of industrial action going and to intensify the actions short of strike. The government, and those who run the colleges, have created a well of resentment that will last for many years.  The sector is in the midst of major re-organisation and its most vital asset - its teachers - are totally demoralised and in open rebellion. Further education lecturers here mean business. They will not co-operate with any activities to promote the sector, they have completely withdrawn their goodwill, they are determined to keep industrial action going until they get fair pay.'

The current pay dispute goes back to the failure of the employers to honour a commitment to implement pay parity with school-teachers made back in 2001. Since that time the sector has seen several bouts of industrial action. Last April lecturers in a secret ballot overwhelmingly voted for industrial action and since then there have been 6 strike days across the 16 colleges and severe disruption to college administration as a result of lecturers working to rule and withdrawing goodwill. The dispute has now become snarled up in a government pay cap on public sector pay.