Colleges in Scotland could be hit by strikes as lecturers are balloted on industrial action.
Members of the EIS-FELA union are pushing for a rise in pay and greater job security, with an offer of 2% rejected in December of 2022, and have previously engaged in action short of a strike, as well as rolling strike action.
Lecturers are being balloted for both action short of a strike and a full strike in a ballot which closes on January 16.
In its latest budget, the Scottish Government announced it would reduce revenue funding for the college sector to £643m, a reduction of £58.7m from the figure initially presented to parliament for the 2023-24 year.
The government has already scrapped plans to provide £26m in funding to Scotland's colleges in 2023-24.
EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “Scotland’s college lecturers should have received a pay rise in September 2022. Today, more than a year later and in the face of the worst cost-of-living crisis in recent memory, our members are still waiting for a fair pay increase.
"The only proposals that have come from employers come with so many strings attached – such as deep job cuts across the lecturer workforce – that they will never be acceptable to our members.
“It is frankly unbelievable that after a year of developing crisis in Further Education, the Scottish Government has decided to cut the budget of colleges to the tune of £58.7m.
