 Both sides agreed a deal to pay experienced lecturers more |
Further education lecturers at colleges across Wales are staging a one-day strike following a dispute over the implementation of a new pay structure. Lecturers' union UCU said the employers' organisation fforwm had refused to start paying experienced lecturers an agreed higher salary. But fforwm claims the pay rise is not due for another four months. Lecturers are holding a rally at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay to put their case to Assembly Members. UCU also maintains fforwm have refused to guarantee the new national agreement across all colleges in Wales. Representatives from UCU and fforwm held a meeting with assembly government minister John Griffiths on 7 April to discuss the situation. UCU said some "limited" progress was made, but that fforwm had refused to implement salary progression from April. On Tuesday, further education lecturers in England voted to strike over parity of pay with school teachers on the same day as teachers' unions are taking industrial action over their pay.  |  The employers are seeking to undermine a national agreement that not only restores fair pay to FE lecturers but also directly benefits students by promoting excellent professional practice |
UCU Wales official Margaret Phelan said: "The principle has been accepted in Wales that lecturers should be paid the same as school teachers. "UCU signed a national agreement on this with the employers, in good faith, and we expect it to be fully implemented. "The funding has been provided by the Welsh Assembly Government and colleges should be paying up." UCU Wales further education chair Guy Stoate added: "This is the first national FE strike in Wales for almost a decade. "We will certainly do all we can to minimise the impact on students. "However the employers are seeking to undermine a national agreement that not only restores fair pay to FE lecturers but also directly benefits students by promoting excellent professional practice." Picket Fforwm said the assembly government had not provided the money to cover progression to higher pay levels for 2007-2008. Bryn Davies, fforwm's employment committee chairman, said: "At times I despair of listening to the UCU negotiators. "Whether they are deaf or are deliberately ignoring what we are saying, we have achieved parity already. "If anything lecturers have a little bit more than teachers in schools." He added UCU had never raised the issue of the date of progression in the negotiations on the pay deal. "At the time, fforwm negotiators drew the unions' attention to the August date; UCU never raised the issue," he said. "The agreement is absolutely clear. It states that "progression on to UP2 and UP3 will not commence before 1 April, 2006. Thereafter threshold progression will take effect from 1 August each year." UCU, which has 4,000 members across Wales, is picketing colleges.
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