Conditions of Service Archives - Page 10 of 12 - Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association

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COSLA Proposed Changes to Pay and Conditions

Dear Colleagues

The final proposal from COSLA detailing changes they wish to make to teachers' conditions of services are now available to download from here. Paper copies of this proposal and a ballot paper will be sent to all members working in the public sector during the next 10 days. Please contact us if you have not received a ballot paper by 10 March. The return date is 22 March 2011.

I must stress that this Association has reached no agreement with COSLA and our policy will be based solely on the stated views of members.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further clarification.

With best wishes

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

Conditions of Service - 02/28/2011

Update on COSLA proposals

Dear Colleages

I regret to inform you that no progress as been made on SNCT negotiations or COSLA agenda because the COSLA representatives cancelled the meeting late on Wednesday. We do not, as yet, have a firm date for a replacement meeting but expect to meet next week.

I will, of course, contact you as soon as further information is available and the Association will continue to add updated information to the website.

If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me at info@ssta.org.uk.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

18 February 2011

Conditions of Service - 02/18/2011

10 February 2011 Update

Colleagues

During the course of today we have become aware of some unexpected additional cuts to education within Local Authority budget proposals.

At yesterday's meeting COSLA did warn the teachers' side that their proposal would appear as “ a done deal” in budgets because “these savings have to be made” but they (COSLA) were still prepared to negotiate.

The Teachers' side have not agreed to any proposal, and will not.

A final decision will be made by members in a ballot.

As soon as there is further information available, even if the report is ‘no progress', you will be informed.

Yours sincerely

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

Conditions of Service - 02/10/2011

Update on SNCT Meeting

Dear Colleagues

I regret to inform you that no final decision was reached at the SNCT meeting today. It was agreed in advance that the discussion would not be subject to comment outside the meeting until a decision is reached. The proposals explained to you in earlier emails are still representing the employers' position. Further meetings will take place during the next two weeks and I guarantee to keep you informed of any decisions made. This Association will not accept changes to Conditions of Service without the agreement of members.

Yours sincerely

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

Conditions of Service - 02/09/2011

Negotiations with COSLA

Dear Colleagues

The convener of the Salaries and Conditions committee was part of the delegation which met with COSLA and the Scottish Government on Monday 31 January. Subsequently our Salaries and Conditions of Service Committee met today, Tuesday 1 February, to determine our response to the most recent proposals.

COSLA wish us to believe that, in return for considerable detriment to our conditions of service new teacher posts will be created. However they are unable to give us accurate information about the number of teachers currently employed in each Authority; no guarantees about action to be taken if promises are not kept and no definite clarification of the number of posts to be created. The clearest information we have is that teacher numbers will not fall by more than 900, hardly an overwhelming improvement.

The detriment to some teachers would be considerable:

All supply teachers being paid at scale point 1 for the first 15 days of every placement, and only for 6/7 of a day.
Life time conservation to become cash conservation and be removed after 3 years
An end to the Charter Teacher scheme (or stopping it for 1 year)
Sick pay paid at only 90% of salary from day 1 of absence
Probationers to work 80% of class contact time instead of 70% presently done.
Contractual holidays limited to 40 days, with 26 days additional leave which the Scottish Government describe as ‘being like weekends'. COSLA claim this will have no effect on the holiday entitlement unless a teacher takes maternity leave.

The Committee decided that we cannot agree to this proposal and consequently the SSTA will oppose the move at the SNCT meeting to be held on Wednesday 9 February. Should the proposal change we will consider that amended proposal and inform you as soon as possible. We expect to receive an official version of this information by the end of this week. It will be immediately added to the website.

Further updates will be sent by email and added to the website as soon as more information becomes available. In the meantime if you have any comments or questions please don't hesitate to contact me.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

Conditions of Service - 02/01/2011

Pay demand made by the Teachers' side

Dear Colleagues

You may have noted the comments in newspapers today about the pay demand made by the Teacher's side, and wrongly credited to the EIS. The claim was for a minimum of 3.3%, based on the rate of CPI during 2010.

Apart from the obvious purpose of this claim it is vitally important that our employers are aware of the loss teachers will suffer if a freeze on pay is maintained.

The Convener of Salaries and Conditions of Service is continuing to meet with the Employers to question their stated intention regarding conservation, payment of teachers on supply contracts and other issues. There is no agreement on any of these issues. At this stage we do not have a concrete proposal from the employers side. Regular updates will be posted on the website and emailed to members and all members will be informed when (if) there are fleshed out proposals to consider.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

Conditions of Service - 01/24/2011

Possible action by COSLA/Scottish Government to end conservation

Dear Colleagues

Many of you will be aware of the article in newspapers at the weekend, discussing possible action to end conservation.

This was one of the proposals agreed between COSLA and the Scottish Government in November 2010. Teacher Unions have not agreed to this and negotiations are currently underway. At this stage the Management side have been unable to provide us with any of the details needed to make a rational decision.

COSLA are stating their position very clearly! If they are unable to save the £60M they claim to require, teacher posts will go; through redundancy, vacancies not being replaced and possibly increased class contact time. There are difficult choices ahead.

I can assure you however that this Association is working hard to produce the best possible outcome for members, and will continue to do so. We will keep you informed through the website, by email and by post.

Yours sincerely

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

Conditions of Service - 01/12/2011

Threatened action by Aberdeen City Council

TO Members in Aberdeen City

Dear Colleague

You will have received a communication from Aberdeen City Council this morning, which is a blatant attempt to blackmail teachers in the authority. This Association utterly condemns any attempt to blackmail teachers into accepting a salary reduction. We will take all necessary steps to support members in Aberdeen and will certainly ballot on industrial action should either of these measures be imposed. Please note however that Aberdeen City Council will not take any steps to reduce salaries or impose redundancies at this stage. The next step will begin in January when we expect a consultation from Aberdeen City Council to be sent out. Please reply to the consultation from Aberdeen City Council in the new year, and state your views as strongly as possible.

We expect the council decision to be made in February, after a period of consultation. The Council will take no action before then.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have concerns or wish to discuss this further. You can also contact the District Secretary, John Gray, by email at jgray@oldmachar.aberdeen.sch.uk

should be grateful if you could forward this email to any member who has not received a copy.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

Conditions of Service - 12/16/2010

Update for members

Dear Colleagues

We were informed today that the SNCT meeting on Wednesday has been cancelled due to inclement weather. There is no date as yet for the rescheduled meeting. As soon as we have information it will be added to the website and emailed to those members for whom we have email addresses. If we do not have an email address for you please email us and we'll add you to the mailing list. At this time of year the post is not a reliable method of communication. After the Christmas holiday ends we will begin sending information by post to school reps in addition to emails and notices on the website.

On another, more immediate, matter please do not hesitate to contact us if you have problems with reasonable requests to work from home being denied. There is information on the website regarding travel during inclement weather and your district secretary will also have local information to assist you.

With best wishes

Yours sincerely

Ann Ballinger

General Secretary

Conditions of Service - 12/07/2010

Advice to members regarding travelling to school during severe winter weather.

In severe winter weather you may have problems travelling to school. It is important to balance your safety with your employer's right to expect you to attend work, but safety must always be the most important consideration. Members are advised to take the following steps:

Make sure you have a copy of the Local Authority procedure for inclement weather and follow the advice in the document.
Check the appropriate website for school closure advice.
Listen to official advice about travel and assess the risks for you.
If you are unable to use your usual form of transport contact the school, explain the situation and inform them that you intend to seek an alternative safe method of travel. (if necessary by leaving a message on the answering machine)
If other methods of transport are impossible contact the school again and inform them you intend to travel to your local school if you live in the authority.
If you live out ¬-with the authority seek advice on whether you should offer your services to the local school.
If travel to a nearer school is also impossible inform the HT that you will work from home, and keep a record of work done.
Contact the office at info@ssta.org.uk or 0131 313 7300 for further advice