The NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in Northern Ireland, has welcomed the result of a ballot of its members in Further Education (FE) colleges, which showed strong support for industrial action in response to ongoing disputes over pay, workload, and conditions.
In the ballot, 74.3% of members voted in favour of strike action, while an overwhelming 98.6 % supported action short of strike, demonstrating deep frustration over the failure to address long-standing concerns.
Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT General Secretary, said:
“This decisive result sends a clear message to employers and the Department for the Economy that our members in Further Education have had enough. Years of pay stagnation, unsustainable workloads, and deteriorating conditions have left staff feeling undervalued and overburdened.
“The fact that such a significant majority are prepared to take strike action, with near-unanimous support for other forms of industrial action, underscores the urgency of addressing these issues. We call on the employers to immediately make a pay offer which addressed the pay differential between college lecturers and school teachers."
Justin McCamphill, NASUWT National Official for Northern Ireland, added:
“FE lecturers play a vital role in delivering high-quality education and skills training, yet they have been consistently let down by a failure to invest properly in the sector.
“This ballot result reflects the strength of feeling among our members, who are no longer willing to accept inaction on pay and conditions. Strike action is always a last resort, but unless there is a serious commitment to addressing these concerns, disruption across FE colleges in Northern Ireland will be inevitable.
“We now have the bizarre situation where teachers employed by schools have received a 5.5% pay increase and commitments on workload while college lecturers, who in many cases teach the same students in the same buildings, haven’t been offered anything.
“Minister for the Economy, Caoimhe Archibald, must now step in and address this mess ensuring that working in FE will at last be seen as a good job within education.”
