CLYDEBANK lecturers are claiming a "hard won victory" in a pay dispute which saw West College effectively closed for a day - but with the caution that there is still much work needed to agree the detail of all national pay scales.

The West College action had been claimed to have the potential to bring chaos to the final term of the academic year, and was part of a national dispute which centred on wide disparity of pay across the country.

During the action Clydebank students were at one point told they need not attend and would be registered as "authorised absent" so they wouldn't miss out on bursary payments, allowances and transport costs.

John Kelly, EIS-FELA president, and branch secretary at the college, had urged principal Audrey Cumberford and Keith McKellar, chairman of the board of management, to use their influence on the national negotiations.

Now Scotland's further education college lecturers have given their overwhelming approval - 96 per cent to 4 per cent - to a national pay offer in a ballot organised by the Educational Institute of Scotland.

Commenting on the decision, EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: "Our members have now endorsed the draft pay agreement, which was delivered through a hard won victory and brought about by the determination of members and their willingness to take industrial action in their fight for their professional status and fair pay across the sector.

"This pay agreement shows what can be achieved by a group of employees standing together, through their union, to protect their rights.”

However John Kelly added that while a particular issue over pay for unpromoted lecturers has been settled the question of national pay scales remains unresolved.

He said: "EIS-FELA hopes that this part of the process will run more smoothly than the previous discussions, which ran for well over a year and ended in a formal dispute and a day of strike action by lecturers across Scotland."