By Bill Heaney
Further Education Minister Graeme Dey has failed Scotland’s college students and workers by acting “as a spectator” in the ongoing dispute, Scottish Labour has said today.
Scotland’s colleges have been in dispute for years – with strikes occurring in nine of the last 10 years.
The current dispute regarding pay has been ongoing since 2022, with college students and staff missing out due to government inaction.
In a letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Education Jenny Gilruth, Scottish Labour Education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy has demanded action to help end the dispute.
Labour spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy, Colleges minister Graeme Day and Education Minister Jenny Gilruth.
In her letter, Duncan-Glancy writes: “By wilfully standing by as industrial relations weaken by the day Graeme Dey has caused chaos in the sector, distress for staff and disruption for students.
“Colleges are stretched, forced to do more with less for their students, and college teaching staff face deepening job insecurity, all because of chronic underfunding by this Scottish Government. The situation is untenable and must be resolved.
“Your Government should have stepped in long ago, but this situation has developed and deepened over years of inaction.”
Duncan-Glancy added: “Enough is enough – Scotland’s missing-in-action Colleges Minister has failed the entire sector.
“If Graeme Dey is content to continue as a spectator in this dispute then his superiors must act to repair the damage he has done and end this dispute.”
Top picture: West College campus at Clydebank. Picture by Bill Heaney