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Lecturer pay offer 'falls short', says union

Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI education correspondent
PA Media Union members, two of them in yellow high-viz vests on a picket line during previous strike action. Two of them are holding signs saying 'official picket' while a third is wearing a blue UCU top.PA Media
UCU members, pictured here during previous industrial action, say the "offer represents broken promises"

A pay offer of 5.5% for further education (FE) lecturers "falls short" of pay parity with teachers.

That is according to the University and College Union (UCU), one of the main unions representing FE lecturers in Northern Ireland.

Lecturers have been offered a 5.5% rise for 2024/25 and a 3% rise in 2025/26.

Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald said the offer provided "a further step towards parity with teachers".

In a statement she said that FE was "a critical part of our economic infrastructure".

"The expertise of our further education lecturers is key to supporting people achieve their potential and providing the skills needed for our economy," she said.

The statement said that it was hoped the offer would be accepted.

But the two main unions in FE already have a mandate from their members to take strike action over pay.

Both UCU and NASUWT members have previously voted in favour of strike action and action short of strike.

And the UCU's Northern Ireland official Katharine Clarke said full pay parity with teachers had not been delivered.

A potential strike by teachers was averted in April after unions accepted a revised pay offer of 5.5% for 2024/25.

"Even with this current offer, lecturer pay will remain £2,200 lower per annum than schoolteachers," Ms Clarke told BBC News NI.

"The offer made by the employers falls short on the promise of achieving pay parity with schoolteachers, a commitment made by the previous Minister for the Economy, Conor Murphy."

"The UCU is pleased the employers have reaffirmed their desire to achieving pay parity, but the reality is unless Minister Archibald allocates budgets to colleges enabling them to plug the education pay gap, lecturer salaries will continue to lag behind that of schoolteachers and university lecturers."

"Negotiations are ongoing but UCU is clear that the employers' hands have been tied, and the offer represents broken promises at ministerial level."

There are six FE colleges in Northern Ireland with more than 63,000 students.

They teach a large range of vocational and academic subjects to a wide variety of students, and are a major part of the education system.