College staff across Scotland have been given a “final” offer of a £5,000 increase over three years in a long-running dispute over pay.
Fresh talks took place between College Employers Scotland (CES), EIS Further Education Lecturers Association (EIS-Fela) and the three unions representing support staff, Unite, Unison and GMB.
Last month, members of the EIS-Fela took two weeks of rolling strike action as part of the dispute.
CES has urged unions to put the offer of a consolidated £5,000 pay increase covering the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years.
The employers’ body said the offer would deliver an average pay rise of 11.5%.
Previously, CES had offered £3,500 over two years, which represented £2,000 for 2022/23 and £1,500 for 2023/24.
Those at the start of the national pay scale would benefit from a rise of 14.2%.
College support staff would see nearly 16%, with staff who earn less than £25,000 receiving 21.5%, CES claimed.
The body has also provided a new commitment that any compulsory redundancies would not be directly related to the new three-year pay offer.
Gavin Donoghue, director of CES, said: “This is a very fair pay offer for college staff and would provide significant pay rises, especially now inflation has fallen to 4.6% and is forecast to decline further.
“These proposed pay rises have also been offered against a backdrop of serious financial stress and challenge for colleges, including an 8.5% real-terms reduction in Scottish Government funding since 2021/22.
“Delivering the full and final three-year offer will already test college finances and employers simply cannot afford to go beyond it.
