OVER 50,000 working days have been lost due to stress in Scotland’s colleges over the last three years, according to a report published today.

Trade union Unison Scotland – which produced the SOS Stressed Out Staff, Scotland’s Colleges Stress Report 2019 – said the survey revealed stress levels are now “critical” and warned they were still on the rise and having a severe impact on staff.

It found that sick leave was up almost 37% since 2016, and said on average each college has 23 members of staff off with stress every year.

The survey of staff also found that:

• 60% felt that workloads are high or extremely high with more than half reporting stress came directly due to workloads.

• 69% of respondents felt that their stress issues were not dealt with in a satisfactory way with college management failing to take work-related stress seriously.

• 97% said managers hadn’t discussed group stress risk assessments and 73% stated that managers had never discussed work levels and stress with them.

• only 55% of colleges in Scotland have a specific avoidance of stress policy.

Unison is calling on colleges to commit to working with the trade unions nationally on a series of measures to address the stress crisis in Scotland’s colleges, including better health and safety training and stress avoidance policies and procedures.

It also claimed the Scottish Government should intervene to direct the employers to begin discussions on creating a national avoidance of stress policy and procedure.

However it warned rising demands due to budget cuts were at the heart of problems and insisted investment in staff and students was needed.

Chris Greenshields, pictured, chair of Unison Scotland’s further education committee, said: “This report shows that workplace stress has reached critical levels in Scotland’s colleges and is still on the rise. Our members are struggling with workloads while continued cuts to staff numbers are being sustained as a means of finding ‘savings’.

“We warned colleges in 2016 about staff stress levels and the colleges have singularly failed to address this. We are now calling on the Scottish Government to intervene to direct the employers to begin discussions on creating a national avoidance of stress policy and procedure.”

Collette Bradley, vice chair of Unison Scotland’s further education committee, said: “It is astonishing that colleges deliver health and safety training, yet fail to implement the most basic of protections against workplace stress for the staff to whom it has a duty of care.

“Colleges are not even following their own procedures in ensuring that staff complete ISRA returns with only 10% completion rate and 73% of our members reporting that their managers have never had a discussion about stress and workloads – all the more concerning when 50,000 days have been lost due to stress in Scotland’s colleges over the last three years.”

John Gallacher, Unison Scottish organiser, added: “The Scottish Government must also increase the funding for our colleges to help provide the staff to meet the demands of our further education system in Scotland.

“Too many staff are struggling under the stress of the job and it is affecting the service provided to students. The constant pressure to do more work for more students is proving too much for too many staff. We must properly invest in our colleges, to ensure staff can provide the world class education to their students.”

The report comes days after Scotland’s spending watchdog Audit Scotland reported that financial challenges facing Scotland’s college sector have increased. The Scotland’s Colleges report found that gap between colleges’ income and expenditure is widening and this is forecast to continue, with 12 incorporated colleges forecasting recurring financial deficits by 2022-23.

Last month college lecturers across Scotland staged a two-day strike as part of an ongoing pay dispute.