The Happening! - The first meeting of the national bargaining committee for college staff!

The first meeting of the national bargaining committee for college staff took place on 13 June 2014 in Scottish Government Offices in Glasgow.

Phew! If it takes 12 days to advise members of a meeting and the agenda then how long do we anticipate reaching agreement (compromise or capitulation) on National Bargaining? 

Anyway such cynicism does not become us .... so for your information we have..... from David Belsey - EIS - National Higher and Further Education Officer

The national bargaining committee is now to be known as the National Joint Negotiating Committee for College Staff  - NJNC for short.

(We note that it is for College Staff - but this is dropped from the short version - Is this the first step to single table bargaining - Did you spot that we have single spinal salary scale in colleges? - No?

Maybe its because they seemed to just slide it in - and nobody noticed the implication - moving to FEDRA?

The meeting's agenda is copied below for information:

      1  Welcome and introductions

      2  Organisational arrangements for meetings

• ·       Remit, titles and membership of committees
• ·       Chairs of management and staff sides
• ·       Management and staff side secretariat
• ·       Frequency of meetings
• ·       Protocols/ communication

     3 Priorities and timescales

     4 Facilities Time

    5 Date of next meeting

The next meeting has been arranged for the end of August, and thereafter planned on a monthly basis. The first meeting was effectively an introductory meeting and the issues will begin to be processed over the coming months.

I am sure that the EIS-FELA Executive will update members more fully as matters develop.

Who are on the National Bargaining Committee?

Roll on the end of August - Well ... maybe not!