An update you on a meeting that NIPSA and Unite officials had sought with the Economy Minister to discuss a number of issues causing the trade unions in Further Education, and our members, serious concerns.

I am pleased to report that we met with the Minister and his senior Further Education Sector Departmental Officials on Thursday 25 April 2024 to discuss these concerns and call for appropriate action to address them. Connor Murphy listened intently and provided concrete assurances that communications between the Department and the non-teaching trade unions would be improved, with steps also to be taken to encourage improved communications and Industrial relations between Management Side representing the Colleges at Non-Teaching Staff Negotiating Committee (NTSNC) level and ourselves.

The issues covered included:

The withdrawal of the Belfast Metropolitan College from the College Employers Forum and the repercussions of that, including the process required to sign off and implement NJC pay awards – the Minister and his officials provided reassurance that all 6 College CEOs have agreed to implement in full, both the incremental rises due and indeed any other element of the NJC pay award and that the Department had recently provided temporary approval for all Colleges to do so, which was warmly welcomed by JTUS. We sought this reassurance in writing, which the Minister agreed to direct the College Employers to provide.

The necessity for Industrial Relations to improve across the sector, with an emphasis on regional policy developments, which has been supported by the Department for many years but which the leadership and HR of the Colleges appear to have been reluctant to agree to.

The cancellation of the past 2 NTSNC meetings by Management Side with no confidence that the date agreed to meet in June would be honoured. The Department committed to raising this matter with Colleges to ensure it would be addressed.

The total lack of any progress whatsoever on the 2022 JTUS Pay Claim, with the cost of living impacts upon employees continuing to be keenly felt highlighted by NIPSA. The stark contrast with the recent teachers' pay awards was stressed.

The roll out and implementation of the Redundancy Scheme across the Sector under an outdated policy which JTUS submitted was not in line with age discrimination legislation. We pointed out to the Minister that despite the Policy clearly stating on the cover page that a review was required in November 2019, and JTUS putting forward a range of issues requiring resolution, this had been effectively ignored by the college employers to date.

Serious concerns over employees being told in one College that they must apply for voluntary redundancy, in complete contravention of the Ministerial directive that any redundancy must be on a voluntary basis only. The Minister was very concerned on hearing this and committed the Department to actively review the situation.

The fear of imminent closure of the Castlereagh Campus of Belfast Metropolitan College, despite assurances made at the inception of the BMC that a campus would remain in the East of Belfast. JTUS advocated their belief that the decision had been made, fuelled by many factors including the ending of catering contracts at that campus from June this year. Again, the Minister stated categorically that no decision had been or could be taken until he and the Department for the Economy, which funds the Sector, were satisfied that many serious Equality Impact Assessment concerns raised by JTUS had been fully considered and any resultant alternative service provision arrangements agreed. We were informed that this would be considered by the BMC's governing body next month, following which it would be subjected to full Departmental and Ministerial scrutiny. The Minister stated clearly that no decision to close the campus could be in place to take effect for the next academic year and that a decision to close would require departmental approval, which was far from the point reached to date.

The requirement to grow the FE Sector as part of, rather than separate to, the rest of the Education system in NI – the Minister provided an insight into his approach to this which provided reassurance that the sector would not be left behind and is a critical part of achieving economic growth across NI.

We agreed to meet regularly with the Department and, if necessary, the Minister again to ensure that all the above matters would receive joint attention going forward.

Kim Smyth
Assistant Secretary/Joint Trade Union Side Secretary