THERE is no point in starting negotiations on the McCrone report until the money is in place to fund a pay and conditions package, the conference of the Professional Association of Teachers was told this week.
Ian Elfick, on behalf of the union’s Scottish committee, said: “The starting point is not the establishment of fixed positions by the unions but the commitment of the Scottish Executive to fund in full the recommendations. It is equally pointless to negotiate with the employers without the necessary funding commitment.”
Mr Elfick, headteacher of Graysmill specialschool in Edinburgh, said that McCrone’s benefits to teachers as a whole would not be shared by groups that were ignored - entrants to the profession, those approaching the end of their career and “those who have carried the profession through the last difficult decade”.
Proposing the only Scottish motion to the Cheltenham conference, which called on the Executive to initiate “open tripartite” negotiations with the unions and employers, Mr Elfick commended the report’s recommendations on social inclusion and tackling indiscipline in schools “without reservation”.
