LECTURERS are balloting on strike action in a long-running pay dispute after Colleges Scotland attempted to impose a previously rejected pay offer.

Teaching union the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has begun an industrial action ballot for lecturers at 16 colleges in support of a 2015-16 pay claim proposed by the EIS Further Education Lecturers Association (EIS-Fela), which sought to ensure pay equality in colleges across Scotland.

EIS-Fela president John Kelly accused college management of dragging the process out for over a year before making a “completely unacceptable offer” that does not apply to all colleges.

“This type of management imposition is not what lecturers expected from the much-lauded return to national bargaining that was promised by the Scottish government,” he said.

“This is not national bargaining and this is not a pay offer that FE lecturers are prepared to accept.”

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said his union’s pay claim sought “a fair cost-of-living increase for lecturers and for colleges to commit to addressing the current pay inequity across the sector.”

Mr Flanagan added that colleges “threatening to impose this unfair offer will only strengthen lecturers’ resolve and lead to increased support for strike action.”

Colleges Scotland said it was “disappointed” by the prospect of strike action, arguing that it could disadvantage students.

In a statement the body said the EIS pay claim was “completely unrealistic” in the current financial climate, adding that its 1 per cent offer was “in line with public-sector pay policy, which has been accepted by three other unions already.”

Chief executive Shona Struthers said “the EIS position is so far from what is realistic that we fear any industrial action will not only detrimentally affect students but also do little to improve lecturers’ prospects of reaching a pay settlement this year.”

Ms Struthers reiterated that “The college sector is committed to national bargaining and to addressing pay differentials” but warned that “this cannot be done overnight nor in isolation to conditions of service, which for lecturing staff are very generous.”

The ballot closes on March 4.