Following negotiations between the EIS and management at Edinburgh’s Telford College, a draft agreement has been reached which aims to bring an end to the current employment dispute at the college. This will now be subject to a consultative ballot of EIS-FELA members in the college. In the meantime, all industrial action by EIS-FELA members at Telford College has been suspended.
A joint statement has been released on behalf of management and the EIS-FELA branch at Telford College, which reads as follows:
Following a series of meetings, senior managers of Edinburgh’s Telford College and EIS – FELA branch representatives have reached agreement on a series of measures which are designed to bring an end to the current dispute. This agreement will now be put to EIS members in a ballot.
Paramount in the discussions was the need to ensure that any interruption to teaching for students would be concluded and that both sides would work to restore positive working relationships for the future.
Both parties are optimistic that productive working relations can be forged once more, with regular and early consultation and negotiation on a wide range of matters.
In this way any issues regarding the direction for the college would be identified and resolved, with relevant and valued input from all quarters.
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4 comments:
A Victory indeed - we have won - a lot and we must continue to fight to see the end of Protocol National in any part of the work of the college. We have been united and it has been wonderful to be part of a group of people who have been stood up to be counted and are clearly together, to have gained so much support from outside the college and mostly to get support from the students who are clearly are 100% behind us.
But for some of us who have been at Telford a long time, the distrust of the management is so deep routed - the unjust methods they have used and the treatement of people has been appalling, it is for these reasons that many of us are concerned for the future. We will all have to be careful and vigilant as more and more courses, I believe, will be introduced under the "commercial" heading and to have the strength to say no when we know we are right.
Lets get back to the Telford College that many of us used to be proud to be part of.
Although I understand your concern about moving courses into commercial it should be noted that any courses which are summable ie gain income from public funds will not be moved as SUMS make up the majority of income.
We need to continue the fight to make sure PN are not involved in college delivery under any circumstances - then it won't matter if some courses are moved under the School 4 'Commercial' banner.
As one member said at an EIS meeting - if PN are allowed in to deliver commercial work, we will be letting in a Trojan horse and you can rest assured that this untrustworthy management will then try to expand their involvement in other areas.
Let's continue to say a firm and non-negotiable "NO" to PN. They're not wanted!
Well indeed congratulations folks an excellent result We are now hopefully back on track as an educational establishment and we can all start working together again with an agreed emphasis on the practical activity of teaching and learning rather than the endless reviews of reviews and audits of audits and meetings about meetings. As with the Health service and it relationship with its Clinical staff, we of course need management However like the NHS we need less and more effective middle management posts with a greater emphasis on seeking and acting on academic staff opinions on crucial policies. The level of parliamentary support has been significant, I have personally had 6 e-mail and postal letters of support from MSPs and MP's. This is the time to highlight the debate internally over Senior Lecturer posts /CTL roles and pay scales and externally a national pay review for Lecturers within FE whilst the spotlight is on our Management Team and FE Lecturers employment conditions. Again well done to all EIS members who stood by their union, we have gained a lot of credibilty across the sector, whilst others most certainly have lost what little they had.
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