Gibraltar NASUWT met with the Chief Minister and his Industrial Relations Team in a virtual meeting yesterday afternoon. 

A statement from Gibraltar NASUWT follows below:

Following our press statement five days ago, Gibraltar NASUWT met with the Chief Minister and his Industrial Relations Team in a virtual meeting yesterday afternoon. We understand that he also met with our sister unions, GGCA and UNITE, earlier in the day. We are grateful for the swift action taken by Mr Picardo to engage with the unions and discuss the current and proximate financial landscape.  

The discussion centred around the rationale behind the Government’s recent circular, which we have been told is focused on the need to economise on unnecessary public expenditure and tie loose ends so that other less desirable measures can be avoided further down the line. The Union also discussed a number of education-specific issues with Mr Picardo, including his Government’s manifesto commitment to build a new St. Martin’s Special School. We have been given assurances that this project will not be affected by any cost-reducing exercise in the public sector. We were also reassured that teaching positions left vacant by retiring teachers will continue to be filled, to maintain and protect the number of permanent teachers and the overall teaching complement in our schools. Teachers acting for colleagues with additional teaching and learning or senior management responsibilities will continue to be remunerated in case of staff absence due to illness, maternity, etc., and everyone agreed that no acting should be undertaken unremunerated. We appreciate the Chief Minister’s continued commitment to education. 

Our fears have not been put to rest. There are challenging times ahead. It was not what we wanted to hear, but it appears to be the new reality post-Brexit and post-Covid; at least for the time being. However, we reaffirm the sentiment expressed in our previous press statement that we are cautiously optimistic that Gibraltar can come out of this crisis reinvigorated and its economy stronger than ever. We look forward to building on today’s meeting with HM Government and to working with our sister unions to overcome the challenges ahead.