Northern Ireland college staff vote to take industrial action over pay ‘betrayal’

Belfast Metropolitan College, Northern Regional College, North West Regional College, Southern Regional College, South Eastern Regional College and South West College educate more than 63,000 students between them.

The ballot was open for three weeks and was conducted via Royal Mail with 90% voting in favour of strike action, and 98.5% voting in favour of action short of a strike (ASOS), with a 49% turnout.

The vote for action comes after the six college employers failed to protect staff from excessive workloads and the Minister for the Economy refused to honour a pay parity commitment with schoolteacher salaries.

Last year UCU members took sixteen days of strike action and continuous action short of strike after a decade of pay freeze and pay restraint saw college lecturer pay fall drastically behind schoolteachers and university lecturers. The action was stood down after Conor Murphy, previous Minister for the Economy, authorised a pay offer of around 11.2% that contained a commitment to pay parity with schoolteachers in future pay rounds.

Within weeks of taking up office, the new Minister for the Economy, Caoimhe Archibald, reneged on the agreement. Minister Archibald has reduced the baseline budget to colleges by 7.9% and told college employers they must find £18m of efficiency savings.

The UCU Northern Ireland official, Katharine Clarke, said: ‘It is disappointing and shocking that within weeks of taking up office Minister Archibald has ripped up a government approved pay agreement. While Minister Givan has secured a pay increase for schoolteachers of 5.5% the Economy Minister has effectively told college employers that a pay increase for lecturers must be financed via the redundancies of their colleagues. Minister Archibald talks about “good jobs” and skills driving the economy, yet she is treating the biggest section of workers under her portfolio as the poor relations of the education sector, both in terms of pay, and conditions of service. Our members will not accept the thin end of the wedge’.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: ‘If the Minister does not reverse her draconian instruction to college employers and finance last year’s pay agreement, our members will take action. This means there is imminent and real danger that thousands of qualifications will not be issued, and students will be unable to graduate. Our members do not take such action lightly, but notices will be served if the Minister does not honour her predecessor’s commitments’.