Collective Bargaining U-Turn

So what has happened in 10 days?

Apparently Michael Russell, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, will announce that the re-establishment of National Bargaining in Scotland's Further Education Sector at the EIS AGM on Saturday. This will now be guaranteed by an amendment to the Post-16 Education Bill which is currently proceeding through the Holyrood Parliament.
 

This comes a mere 10 days after the Minister categorically rejected such a thing at the Bill's Committee Stage (on 28 May,2013). This can be confirmed by accessing the video record of the Committee's 'debate' on the Parliament's website.

EIS members & MSP's have a right to know precisely what has changed...
 

It seems that since getting away with the Spy Pen debacle & after allegedly 'misleading' the Scottish Parliament about College funding this most arrogant of individuals is now willing to display complete contempt for our democratic institutions for some applause at a Union AGM & to divert more general attention from the vandalism which has been committed during the past two years to the Scottish FE Sector (merely to buy time for his unsustainable Higher Education policies).
 

The question is whether this U-turn is evidence of Russell running scared or of his shameless arrogance (or a bit of both). It certainly seems that we cannot expect much in the way of integrity from our elected representatives if this is considered to be an appropriate means of intimating significant changes to Parliamentary legislation. It also suggests that the Scottish Parliament's much vaunted Committee System is simply not fit-for-purpose, since it is demonstrably unable to scrutinise effectively the Scottish Government's Executive or to hold Ministers to Public account.

It will be very interesting to see whether we now get the usual smoke & mirrors from the Minister about the costs of this announcement. It is almost certain that these will be paid for by even deeper cuts in the levels of future student activity in Colleges & by further job losses.
Do not cheer too loudly. Smoke can get in your eyes...
 

Ian Graham

Sent from my iPhone

Comment on The Correlate Open Forum