Government plans that could see lawyers accompany school staff into grievance hearings will result in “a major increase in costs”, a teaching union leader has claimed.
Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, was responding to reports that education secretary Nadhim Zahawi wants to amend the Employment Relations Act as part of a plan to curtail trade union influence.
The reported proposals would allow teachers to be accompanied to grievance and disciplinary meetings by an external lawyer or representative of a body other than a union.
This plan was included in a Daily Telegraph report, which said Mr Zahawi was “planning to loosen the grip of trade unions on schools”.
But leaders of headteachers’ and teachers’ unions have criticised the idea.
In response, Dr Bousted said: “Getting lawyers involved in disciplinary and grievance hearings will inevitably result in a major increase in costs and bureaucracy for employers, as well as redirecting school funding away from education.”
This had “already happened with academisation”, she said, pointing to an “escalation of disputes, increased paperwork, increased costs, and increased and more complex compromise/settlement agreements”.
She added: “The only winners are the lawyers.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, described it as “a bout of party political union bashing”.
He said: “The idea of extending the right of employees to be accompanied to grievance and disciplinary hearings by a legal representative is a can of worms.
“It is likely that employers would then feel the need to themselves bring legal representatives into the process, which would obviously increase the cost and bureaucracy involved.
“The right to be accompanied by a union representative is an established process that is well understood, and we are not sure what adding an extra layer of complexity and cost is supposed to achieve, other than to try to undermine the education unions.”
The government has already indicated that it supports changing legislation.
Government ‘supportive’ of law change
In a written parliamentary question, Conservative MP Steve Baker asked Mr Zahawi what steps the government was taking to help ensure that teachers and other education staff can choose to be accompanied to disciplinary or grievance hearings by a person other than a trade union representative or colleague.
In a written response, schools minister Robin Walker said: “My Right Honourable Friend, the secretary of state for education, is supportive, in principle, of a change to the Employment Relations Act 1999 to give teachers who are not members of a trade union the right to be accompanied by a representative of another professional body, such as Edapt, to disciplinary and grievance meetings.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “It’s important that all workers, including those that aren’t members of unions, can benefit from the kind of support that unions offer.
“That’s why we are exploring a change to the law to give teachers who aren’t trade union members the right to be accompanied by a representative of another professional body, such as Edapt, to disciplinary and grievance meetings. This does not extend to accompaniment by a legal representative.
“The government is considering the most appropriate legislative opportunity to pursue this work.”
Edapt was set up as an alternative to teaching union membership to provide teachers and school staff with “casework services and edu-legal support in individual employment disputes and allegations”.
Its chief executive, John Roberts, has welcomed reports of the government’s plans.
He said subscribers who had switched over to Edapt “just do not feel that their union speaks for them, represents their views or even provided them with the support that they needed during the pandemic”.
He said: “The vast majority of teachers are a member of a union primarily for support in allegations, not because they stand behind a particular political view.
“If the government stepped in to make good the inherent unfairness in the current system, we would have equal rights to workers and employees regardless of whether they are a member of a trade union or not.”
An Edapt spokesperson said ensuring that teachers have access to suitably trained and experienced caseworkers, who can accompany them in disciplinary and grievance issues, “reduces costs to schools and improves outcomes”.
They added: “To say that costs would increase is simply untrue - in the case of Edapt, our subscription costs to individuals and to schools are, in fact, generally lower than union membership fees.”
The report comes as Edapt published new data suggesting satisfaction with teaching unions had declined in the past two years, with Mr Roberts suggesting it was at “an all-time low”.
Teachers’ views on unions
The survey data shows that 31 per cent of teachers polled had said they were satisfied with their union’s work when asked the question: “What are your feelings about teaching unions?”
This compared with 46 per cent when the same question was asked of teachers two years earlier.
The figures are based on questions asked by Teacher Tapp, commissioned by Edapt.
Responses to the same question show that 41 per cent said joining a union is valuable and worthwhile, while 28 per cent said they would prefer not to be a member of the union if there was alternative legal support available.
The poll also found that 34 per cent agreed with collective action in the case of pay and condition disputes, and 13 per cent said they were uncomfortable with collective action and would prefer not to be involved.
Most teachers not planning to change union
The data also showed that 80 per cent of respondents were not thinking of changing their union.
More than half (55 per cent) of the 6,173 teachers responding said they were not thinking of changing union because they were generally happy with it.
Edapt said this percentage had fallen from 68 per cent in 2020.
Another 25 per cent said they were not thinking of leaving because they could not see any alternative to the services provided by them.
Meanwhile, 11 per cent of respondents said they were thinking of leaving their teaching union and 6 per cent said they were not union members.
