Industrial Action taking place on 25th March 2021

Unfortunately, strike action will take place at the college tomorrow despite our request for it to be suspended while talks are ongoing.

The Educational Institute of Scotland Further Education Lecturers’ Association – known as the EIS-FELA – and the college sector Employers Association have met many times over the past few months to try to resolve a dispute, raised by them.

The EIS-FELA has claimed colleges are trying to replace lecturer posts with less qualified and less well-paid staff. This simply isn’t true.

In our discussions, the EIS-FELA has agreed that there is no national plan to replace lecturers with other roles like tutors, assessors or instructors.  We also both agree that all roles in colleges, whether they be lecturing or support staff, are valuable and that each role is distinct.

There is one detail left on the table for discussion on a national role profile, and the employers want to make sure that it recognises the complex and professional nature of the job that lecturers undertake.Colleges also need to be confident that the solution doesn’t have a negative impact on other staff, like support staff, because we have a duty of care to all our staff.

If this action affects you, we will let you know about it as soon as we can and give you as much information as we can. We will use your UHI student email to contact you so please be sure to check this regularly.

The industrial action is part of a planned programme of discontinuous strike action which may also include Wednesday 31 March and Thursday 1 April 2021.

If you have any concerns, please don't hesitate to speak to your PAT, Lecturers or local centre staff. Please also remember that we have a counselling service in place if you feel you need some additional mental health support.