To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail her role in resolving the current pay dispute with further education lecturers.

I want to take this opportunity to set out clearly what my role and that of my Department is in relation to the current dispute as there appears to be some misunderstanding at present, and my role may differ from other Ministers in other Departments.

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The Further Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 which established the Further Education Colleges specifies that:

“The terms and conditions of the employees of the governing body of an institution of further education ….. shall be such as may be determined by the governing body after consultation with representatives of the employees concerned.”

The Governing Bodies of the colleges are therefore employers in their own right and negotiations on lecturer’s terms and conditions take place through the Lecturers Negotiating Committee which is comprised of representatives of Colleges as the employers and the Trade Unions. As I have said previously, neither the Department nor I as Minister have any role in these negotiations and I understand that this position has been adopted consistently by previous ministers, both in the Department for Economy and previously the Department for Employment and Learning, during earlier negotiations.

The Department’s role and my role as Minister reflect our respective responsibilities in ensuring that proper governance is in place around the use of public resources. Colleges are Non-Departmental Public Bodies of the Department and are required under their respective Financial Memoranda to refer “any activities which appear novel, contentious or repercussive” to DfE as their sponsor Department for approval. In addition, colleges are required to ensure that annual pay increases for staff must be in accordance with the Department of Finance guidance. All proposed pay awards must have prior approval of both the Department and the Department of Finance before implementation.

As a result, any Business Case developed as a result of the negotiations will have to be referred to the Department for appraisal prior to seeking my approval before approval is sought from the Department of Finance.

The Departmental appraisal of the Business Case will consider the issue of affordability and will identify the extent of any additional financial resources which would be required to deliver the preferred option. I will then explore at that point, how any additional requirements can be met including whether a bid for additional resources is required. However, you will note that I cannot submit a formal bid for additional resources until there is an approved business case is in place and I have clarity on the quantum of resource required.

I considered that it was important to provide this level of detail as comparisons have been made between my role and the role which the Minister for Education played in the recent negotiations on teachers’ pay. Teachers’ terms and conditions are negotiated within the Teachers’ Negotiating Committee (TNC) which is made up of DE, employing authorities and the five recognised teachers’ unions (known collectively as NITC). .DE determines pay and uses TNC to negotiate it:

“in accordance with the provisions of Article 69(1) and (6) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, following negotiations with Teachers’ Unions, the Department of Education has determined that the salaries and allowances to be paid to teachers in grant-aided schools shall be…”

In addition, in relation to my role, the fact that I and my officials meet with the Colleges regularly but have not met with the Trade Unions is being cited as evidence that neither the Department nor I can carry out an impartial and objective assessment of any business case developed as a result of the negotiations.

As I explained earlier, DfE is sponsor Department for the six FE Colleges and I as Minister, am ultimately accountable to the Assembly for their efficiency and effectiveness. This necessitates regular meetings between colleges and their sponsor Department to obtain assurance on how public funding is being utilised. That is a key part of my role and of DfE’s role as a sponsor Department. I do not have a similar function in relation to trade unions.

I have gone into some detail in this response in order to clear up some of the misconceptions which have been circulating recently and I hope this provides some clarity around the role that I and my Department are required to play during the current negotiations. I would stress that in no way should our requirement to carry out that role be seen as an impediment or a barrier to the negotiations which are currently ongoing.