Apr 30 - Chief Minister Addresses NASUWT Pay Claim
The Government says the Chief Minister wrote a Bulletin today to all teachers setting out the Government's position on the NASUWT pay claim.
The bulletin from the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, follows below:
"I am writing to you all today, in my capacity both as Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Public Finance, to provide you with a summary of the facts surrounding our ongoing negotiations on NASUWT's pay claim on behalf of its members.
"Let me start this direct communication with you by confirming to you that the claim in question has not been rejected. In fact, it is being very seriously considered and a great deal of work has gone and is going into this. The teaching body is large in Gibraltar. Approximately 380 teachers are employed by the Government and therefore the settlement of this claim will have wide ranging implications which must be properly dealt with. Due diligence is therefore going to be key to this process being completed successfully and to the mutual satisfaction of the membership of the Gibraltar NASUWT and the Government. That remains my key aim, to reach a conclusion that is mutually satisfactory. To do so, I need to ensure that the outcome is one that stands up to scrutiny and rewards every teacher in a fair and transparent manner, doing away with unfairness in the distinctions made between different parts of the profession. Additionally, we must all be satisfied that the conclusions we reach deliver a sustainable structure for generations to come.
"Notwithstanding this, it is fair to say that this claim, as well as others from other unions and many other matters have been unavoidably delayed by the Brexit negotiations. I cannot pretend it has not been. It is also true, however, that I am sure you will understand that the Brexit work I have had to engage in has been overwhelmingly important for the whole of our community. I have had no choice but to prioritise Brexit over all other political and personal commitments. As a consequence of the extension to Brexit, however, I am now fully available to engage on the process and committed to a swift resolution. Unfortunately, one of last meetings we had set for discussion of this subject was fixed for the 12th of April, which then became the date of a potential hard Brexit. Although that has subsequently moved, on that date we had many ongoing plans and arrangements to undo attend to. It was that meeting which I had then no choice but to adjourn to the soonest date for which it could be re-scheduled, namely the 16th April, 48 working hours later.
"I thought that the the outcome of my meeting with the NASUWT executive held on the 16th April (48 working hours after the original meeting had been scheduled) was a good one. We agreed that that the comparators proposed by the Union and the work done by the Government in preparing an outline counter offer should to be analysed by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC). PWC had already been engaged in assisting us on the TLR review (as agreed by the NASUWT executive) and were travelling to Gibraltar for that purpose the following week.
"I want you to be aware that there was no 'counter offer' ready to be put to NASUWT on the day of our meeting. My officials had prepared some alternative numbers in our analysis of the claim made by your representatives, but it is not the case that there was a counter offer ready to go which has been stopped in some way.
"For the avoidance of confusion in respect of the role PWC will have in the process, I want to be clear: they will not in any way be auditing you. No one has suggested that. What we are asking PWC to do is to confirm the comparisons with various of the relevant UK and Channel Island financial comparators that have been referred to as being relevant by the Union and by the Department of Education. I want to make sure that the numbers we are working with are robust and up to date and that we are comparing like with like. Recent developments in Scotland will also be relevant to their analysis. We have used PWC and other similar firms in other areas of the public sector in our Industrial Relations negotiations very successfully.
"Moreover, it is a given that PWC's recommendations, ideally achieved by their working jointly with both Government and Union, would be discussed with NASUWT in any event.
"NASUWT's decision to unilaterally withdraw from the process of working with PWC is therefore unfortunate and I would ask that you reconsider fully engaging in this process as it will better inform our negotiation. Inclusive, transparent engagement would clearly make negotiations easier for both sides.
"Together we have been working on the various aspects of claims by teachers, including TLRs and we had been making good progress. PWC is working on the resolution of the TLR claims by agreement with NASUWT.
"You know that we are investing more per capita in education than probably any government in Europe. We recognise the essential contribution our teachers make to our society and have invested heavily in the infrastructure of your places of work, with more investment to come. We are doing that because we highly value the work our teaching profession does and we want to ensure that we assess your claims with the respect they deserve and not as a simple and less than robust 'horse trade which will not stand the test of time or proper scrutiny.
"We have already done a tremendous amount of work on claims and are doing even more now with the addition of PwC. Indeed, in the seven years since we were first elected we have settled a lot of claims and increased the complement of teachers considerably. We have also included people in the final salary pension scheme who had been excluded from it, although they had started work before the relevant cut-off date. We will likely want to further increase the complement as part of the ongoing negotiation.
"I have approached together with successive Ministers for Education - all the negotiations we have entered into with you in good faith and in the spirit of wanting to resolve matters to mutual satisfaction. This claim will be no different; but it merits careful analysis because of its potentially wide ranging financial consequences. The easiest thing to do - which would have been disrespectful of the profession - would have been to reject the pay claims, but we have not done so. Instead we are working to try to ensure that whatever proposals are made are objectively justifiable. That is the way for us to be able to properly address, and if necessary, together defend the mutually satisfactory settlement of these claims.
"As I have already said pubicly, if we have been unable to address or resolve these matters sooner because of the all-consuming Brexit negotiations, I can only apologise, but it is my judgement - and yours too, I am sure - that the interests of the whole community, which of course includes you, must come first and above any claims by any particular sector, however valued and important.
"The teaching profession is a large one and its claims can have important financial effects on the public finances. That is why this claim merits, deserves and requires serious, careful, respectful and objective assessment. That is what are doing in order to be able to resolve issues to mutual satisfaction in short order.
"I shall look forward to continuing to work with you in providing the best education in Europe to our children, both in terms of the infrastructure of our schools and the terms, conditions and remuneration of our teaching professionals."
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