Higher education walk out 

The sun shone down on Unite members as they started a 24-hour strike at three universities across Scotland today (10 April) over an imposed real terms pay cut.

Staff joined pickets and rallies at the gates of some of the country’s biggest education institutions, with strike action involving 1,000 Unite members at Glasgow, Strathclyde and Edinburgh Napier universities. The action followed successive poor pay awards and years of industrial unrest in the higher education sector.  

UK universities imposed a 1.4 per cent pay offer for 2025/26 on the Scottish university workforce. With RPI inflation currently running at 3.6 per cent – and significant increases in inflation expected due to the war in Iran – this represents a massive real term pay cut. 

Pay talks are already underway for 2026/27 with the joint trade unions in higher education demanding an increase of at least RPI plus three per cent or £3,000, whichever is the greater to be paid in full in August 2026. Unions are also demanding a minimum hourly rate of pay of £15.

Over a decade and a half of below inflation pay rises has led to higher education wages falling by around 30 per cent in real terms since 2010.  

The union’s members work primarily in non-academic roles within the higher education institutions including estates and security staff alongside cleaners, technicians, libraries and administrative roles. 

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “University workers deserve far better than a real terms pay cut after over a decade of below-inflation pay rises. They are faced with rising energy, household, transport and food costs while their wages are being slashed.

“University employers should be ashamed of treating hard working staff in this way which is why our members in Glasgow, Strathclyde and Edinburgh Napier will fight for better jobs, pay and conditions by taking a stand against this appalling treatment.” 

With the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May 2026, Unite Scotland will lead a National Vision for Education campaign based on a fully funded higher and further education sector which values its workforce.

Unite is demanding a sector that provides security for its staff and remains open to all, underpinned by a sustainable funding model that ends the reliance on precarious international fees and student debt. 

Universities and colleges are not just businesses; they are hubs of cultural expression, research excellence, and social mobility. Unite will not stand by while they are managed into decline. 

The Scottish Government has relied on a “frozen” per-student funding model, which has seen real-terms investment in undergraduate teaching fall by 19% since 2013-14. Scotland’s colleges have also experienced a 20 per cent real terms cut in funding over the last five years.

Unite lead officer for higher education Alison MacLean said: “Staff working in Scottish higher education have faced years of significant and successive real-terms pay cuts.

“Last year, university staff had one of the worst ever pay awards imposed upon them which is why our members have no option but to fight back. The 2025-26 budget for higher education represented a real-terms cut, failing to match inflation and leaving our institutions exposed. We are currently in pay negotiations for 2026/27 and our members will simply not accept another derisory pay award. 

“Unite’s members are being forced to pay the price for financial mismanagement through low-ball pay offers, attacks on terms and conditions, and increasing threats of compulsory redundancies. We will not accept this, and our members are prepared to fight for a better education sector for all.”

Over 400 University of Strathclyde workers recently took seven days of strike action in response to proposed job cuts and a failure by the institution to consult on organisational change. 

You can read the Unite Scotland document on the National Vision for Education campaign here. 

By Keith Hatch