Economy Minister hopes impasse over lecturer pay can be resolved

Stormont’s Economy Minister has said he wants to continue work to resolve an impasse between further education colleges and unions over lecturers’ pay.

The NASUWT earlier announced its members had rejected a pay offer of a 5% increase as well as an unconsolidated payment of £1,500.

It comes after industrial action over pay and further action has not been ruled out.

The NASUWT and the University and Colleges Union (UCU) have both called for the gap in pay between college lecturers and school teachers to be closed.

While schools fall under the remit of the Department of Education, further education colleges in Northern Ireland fall under the Department for the Economy.

Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, urged the Economy Minister Conor Murphy to urgently engage with the union.

Appearing at his department’s Assembly scrutiny committee on Wednesday morning, Mr Murphy said negotiation are carried out by further education (FE) colleges, not by the department itself.

He added: “We got the news last night that the offer wasn’t accepted so I’m meeting officials later on today and we obviously want to try and get to a situation where the offer can be accepted, and we get to a space where we can put FE lecturers on the trajectory that they want to be on.”

Mr Murphy described the response of the unions as “understandable”, but said in terms of the offer it is limited by the budget.

“Within the context of this year and the amount of time we had and the limits and the budget and the one-year allocation, it was to try and get something which allowed people to move on and get them on the right trajectory,” he said.

“It’s understandable given the experience that all public sector workers have been through that there is scepticism and a degree of anger out there about how they’ve been treated, so we get that very much, but we hope to be able to get to a space where we can get an agreement and get moving in the right direction.”

Earlier, a Department for the Economy spokesperson said: “The department continues to work with FE colleges to explore the options available to achieve a fair pay offer for FE lecturers.”