SNP minister admits long-running college pay dispute is 'nowhere near' resolution

Colleges Minister Graeme Dey has admitted a long-running dispute between lecturers and management is “nowhere near” a resolution, but he continued to rule out an intervention by the Scottish Government.

Industrial action in the sector is poised to enter a new phase, with another boycotting of student results, as well as further strike days looming.

On Friday, Mark Gillan, a branch secretary of the EIS-Further Education Lecturers Association (FELA), warned that the Government risked presiding over “one of the most catastrophic failures in the history of Scottish education” if it did not intervene.

And on Saturday, College Employers Scotland director Gavin Donoghue argued vital reforms were needed to ensure that national collective bargaining in the sector is “fit for purpose”, as he urged EIS-FELA to move on from the current “two-year deadlock over pay”.

But Mr Dey did not appear hopeful of any imminent progress, saying: “They are not at a position where we are within touching distance of resolving the dispute. Right now, there is a fair gap. And it is a fair gap not just in between the ask on pay and the offer, there are other factors in play there.

“If we can get both sides to move, begin to move - and we will make every effort to do that, and they are willing to do that - and we can get to within a reasonable gap, then of course we want to encourage that and support that as much as we can. We are nowhere near that at the moment.”

The SNP MSP for Angus South has repeatedly come under fire from staff over the refusal of ministers to step into the dispute with additional funding, in the same way they have during industrial action by council workers and others.

Asked if he regretted the way he has handled it, the minister said: “This is not a unique situation. We have been in this situation as a country for nine of the last 10 years. Different ministers, different principals - there is a fundamental problem with industrial relations in the college sector.

“This situation of industrial strife has been there when the public finances were a lot better than they are now. It is indicative of a really unhealthy situation.

“Now, we are not in a position, as I’ve articulated many times, to come up with a substantial pot of money to resolve, if that is the word, the current industrial action, and we should remember that the current industrial action doesn’t just relate to pay.

“We convened a group that represents all of the trade unions, one of them hasn’t come along, but fundamentally all of the trade unions.

“And all I’ve heard is, notwithstanding the bitterness of the current dispute, everybody is sick to the back teeth of this every year. So I have said to them, if that is the case, how do we fix it? What do we do differently? Now I have to say I’ve been quite heartened by the approach.

“Now you don’t suddenly go from the daggers drawn situation we have in the college sector, to everything being positive, and ‘let’s fix this’. But there has been a positive approach to what would we have to do differently.

“And I think that is the role for government in this. The national bargaining structure is there for a reason.”

He added: “We’ve got a long term piece of work to do around just moving this on into a different space, and I don’t underestimate the scale of that challenge - probably better people than me have tried to address that, but I do think there is a willingness on all sides to put an end to this.”