Students could face fresh disruption as lecturers warn they are ready to strike over a lack of progress on implementing a key pay deal.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) said further education lecturers had declared a dispute with college management after talks broke down over the national pay deal which was agreed in March last year.

The union claimed talks between its college branch, the Further Education Lecturers’ association (EIS-FELA) and the Colleges Scotland Employers’ Association had been adjourned abruptly last week after employers tried to renege on a previous agreement over weekly teaching hours.

Read more: Questions over EIS trade union opposition to teacher fee rise

Colleges Scotland said “huge” variations in pay and conditions of service around the country make negotiations complex but said talks would continue on Thursday.

The deal agreed almost a year ago amid a series of walkouts by staff introduced national pay bargaining in the sector to address wide variations in terms and conditions in different colleges, with some lecturers earning as much as £12,000 a year more than others doing the same job.

The SNP pledged to introduce national bargaining as part of reforms in the sector, to address pay and other anomalies, such as differences in teaching hours and holiday entitlement.

Read more: Questions over EIS trade union opposition to teacher fee rise

However the EIS accused college leaders of dragging their feet over implementing the deal – which will see underpaid staff receive 25 per cent of any shortfall this April, with 25 per cent delivered the following year and the remaining 50 per cent by April 2019.

EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said: “The EIS is extremely disappointed that we have been compelled to enter into formal dispute with college management over lack of progress in implementing the March 2016 national pay agreement for FE lecturers.

“This agreement which was reached shortly prior to the last Scottish Parliament elections, followed a period of industrial action by college lecturers across Scotland. The EIS fully expects all the promises made to FE lecturers at that time to be kept.”

EIS-FELA president John Kelly said progress had been slow and lecturers were concerned that issues that they thought had been resolved about working hours and pay benchmarks were being revisited, but that negotiators had been hoping for constructive discussions at last Thursday’s meeting. “Instead we got obfuscation form college management who sought to move the goalposts on several key elements that had previously been proposed.

Read more: Questions over EIS trade union opposition to teacher fee rise

“EIS-FELA will not accept backtracking from management on any element of this agreed national pay deal. We took industrial action before to achieve this pay agreement and we are fully prepared to take industrial action again, if necessary , to defend the agreement and to ensure it is delivered – as promised, and in full.”

Shona Struthers, Chief Executive, the Colleges Scotland Employers’ Association, said talks had merely been adjourned: “We hope that we can continue to build on areas of broad agreement, however it is important to bear in mind that we are dealing with huge variation between existing pay and conditions of service at different colleges around Scotland,” she said. “Bringing these variations into line with each other is a complex process.

“The Colleges Scotland Employers’ Association is fully committed to honouring the agreement reached in March 2016, including the top of the salary scale of £40,000 for lecturers. Good progress has been made a national pay scale and migration plan has already been jointly developed with the EIS. It is important that National Bargaining is successful so that we all deliver the modern and effective workforce that the college sector, learners and the economy needs.”

Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science, Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Disputes such as these are in nobody’s interests, least of all college students and their families. It is welcome that both sides have got round the table and made some progress towards reaching a settlement.

“Having put arrangements in place to allow national bargaining, this is ultimately a matter for the union and college employers to resolve. However, we would encourage the colleges and unions to continue to work constructively for a solution in order that the sector can focus on delivering the high-quality education that its students expect.”