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19/09/2006
College lecturers strike for pay equality
College lecturers at the sixteen Further Education Centres throughout Northern Ireland are staging a one-day strike as part of a protest in a bid to get equal pay with school teachers.
Lecturers are currently paid around £2,500 less than teachers, and they hope that the action will help to get financial parity with teachers, which they were promised in 2001.
The lecturers are taking action to show their opposition to the government's decision to merge the institutions to form six `super-colleges` by 2007.
The Association of NI Colleges today said that it was disappointed at the action being taken just as the new academic year begins and added that it is pressing the government to scrap the pay cap which has stopped colleges from giving large pay rises.
Todays action is the third taken recent weeks, with further disruption planned for October and November.
Jim McKeown, Regional officer of the University and College Union, which currently represents around 4,300 lecturers in Northern Ireland, today said that the dispute has been running for a long time yet said that no one in authority seems to have any interest in finding a resolution.
He said: "The employers claim they support the lecturers but the Department of Education and Learning won't allow them to pay.
"Those at the top are running round in circles and nobody will take a decision.
"The dispute has run into another year and college bosses are rubbing salt in the wound by refusing to make any pay offer for this year.”
Mr McKeown added that lecturers do the same job as teachers and therefore deserve the same pay.
(EF/KMcA)
Lecturers are currently paid around £2,500 less than teachers, and they hope that the action will help to get financial parity with teachers, which they were promised in 2001.
The lecturers are taking action to show their opposition to the government's decision to merge the institutions to form six `super-colleges` by 2007.
The Association of NI Colleges today said that it was disappointed at the action being taken just as the new academic year begins and added that it is pressing the government to scrap the pay cap which has stopped colleges from giving large pay rises.
Todays action is the third taken recent weeks, with further disruption planned for October and November.
Jim McKeown, Regional officer of the University and College Union, which currently represents around 4,300 lecturers in Northern Ireland, today said that the dispute has been running for a long time yet said that no one in authority seems to have any interest in finding a resolution.
He said: "The employers claim they support the lecturers but the Department of Education and Learning won't allow them to pay.
"Those at the top are running round in circles and nobody will take a decision.
"The dispute has run into another year and college bosses are rubbing salt in the wound by refusing to make any pay offer for this year.”
Mr McKeown added that lecturers do the same job as teachers and therefore deserve the same pay.
(EF/KMcA)
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Northern Ireland WeatherToday:Scattered showers of rain, sleet and, over hills, snow in the morning with sunny spells, the best of these in the south. The showers dying out this afternoon with increasing amounts of sunshine. Occasionally fresh westerly or northwesterly winds easing. Maximum temperature 6 °C.Tonight:Clear start with a fairly widespread frost developing. Increasing cloud brings occasionally heavy rain overnight, preceded, especially over western hills, briefly by snow. Occasional southeasterly gales, severe near coasts, developing. Minimum temperature -2 °C.
