Fifth FE strike by Northern Ireland lecturers

Lecturers are planning to mount a lunchtime picket and demonstration at the headquarters of the Department of Employment and Learning in Belfast and to picket the Belfast Institute's Graduation Ceremony which is due to take place at the Spires Centre in Belfast.

Speaking on the action UCU regional official Jim McKeown said: 'This dispute is worsening and no-one in authority seems to want to sort it out. Agreed proposals for pay parity with schoolteachers have been with the government department since last January yet the Minister cannot tell us if government will approve it. Lecturers were due uplift in pay from 1 September 2006 yet the employers have not made any offer.

'The regional bargaining machinery has collapsed as a result of Newry and Kilkeel Institute refusing to allow one of our senior negotiators to attend meetings of the Lecturers Negotiating Committee. In the meantime college mergers are under way against a background of non-co-operation and industrial action by lecturers. Every day there are serious conflicts between lecturers and college managers and working relations are becoming very embittered.

'Strikes and industrial action are not what our members want - they want equal pay with other teachers for doing the same job. They want those in authority to get this settled. But no-one should doubt our members resolve - this is the 5th day of strike action in this campaign and our members are determined to keep the action going. One college is threatening to dock lecturers pay for not completing student registers - if that happens it will escalate this dispute into indefinite strike action.'

The college employers have agreed that lecturers should have pay parity with school-teachers and both sides have agreed a mechanism for implementation. The employers say that they need government approval to implement the package. School-teachers in Northern Ireland had their pay increased by 2.5% from 1 September 2006.