News
Meeting with Education Minister
19/08/2011
A delegation from NIPSA met with Education Minister, John O'Dowd, on 17 August 2011.
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A delegation from NIPSA met with Education Minister, John O’Dowd on 17 August 2011. Discussions centred on four main issues:- Budget Cuts, Review of Public Administration (RPA), Vacancy Control and C2K. There was constructive engagement on a number of issues, but unfortunately no change of position in relation to the significant cuts in the Education budget. A brief update on the key points follows.
Budget Cuts
The Minister advised that he had to live within the budget allocated and that he had no capacity to obtain additional resources from the Assembly Executive. NIPSA made it clear that our members should not be made to pay for the financial mess created by the bankers and speculators and that they should not be expected to take on additional work if hundreds of their colleagues are made redundant. NIPSA told the Minister that our members had taken enough and that with hundreds of job losses expected and no move to resolve this crisis that we would be balloting for industrial action in the Autumn. The Minister accepted the legitimate concerns we had over the budget, which he accepted was bleak and recognised the right of union members to consider action to protect members’ jobs and the service they provide.
NIPSA also raised concerns in relation to work currently undertaken by Performance and Efficiency Delivery Unit (PEDU), which was concentrating on how Education Boards delivered a range of services including; School Transport, Catering,
Administration and Cleaning Services. The Minister gave assurances that following the Stage II Review whatever consideration would be given to efficiencies in these areas that privatisation of those functions was not on the agenda at all. NIPSA welcomed this assurance from the Minister.
The Minister also indicated that further restructuring in the Boards would be required and that a further round of voluntary severance is likely in the near future.
Review of Public Administration (RPA)
The Minister advised the NIPSA delegation that decisions needed to be taken in the near future in respect of the establishment of an Education and Skills Authority (ESA) or an alternative “Plan B”. He accepted that further delays would have a detrimental impact on morale and committed management to meaningful discussions with the unions on the range of issues which would flow from whichever decision is reached regarding ESA. The Minister indicated that what was needed was certainty and security in Education and he will if necessary make decisions which may be individual and strategic ahead of decisions of ESA if required.
Vacancy Control
Members will be aware of the significant difficulties this issue has caused over the last four years or so. NIPSA highlighted the fact that many hundreds of staff have been carrying out the role of a higher grade for several years, performing well in that role and deserved not only better treatment from their employer but a resolution to the issue. NIPSA committed itself to working closely with management to find an acceptable solution to the matter. The Minister indicated that he was expecting a detailed paper to be presented to him in the near future and again gave assurances about meaningful engagement with the unions whenever the way forward becomes clearer.
C2K
NIPSA voiced our concerns about how this issue had been handled and communicated with staff. We emphasised our strong view that management across the Education Sector needed to accept that the unions had a legitimate role to play on representing their members, particularly on issues such as the potential outsourcing of jobs to the private sector. The Minister indicated that he would be having some discussion with the Board on the matter and noted that a further meeting with senior management in C2K had been agreed recently.
£250 Payment
NIPSA highlighted our members extreme disappointment about the continued delay from the end of March in receiving the £250 payment for staff earning £21,000 or less. The Minister undertook to have his Officials investigate this delay, with a view to resolving whatever was holding this up.
Separately the delegation took the opportunity to thank the Minister for his personal intervention with one of the Education Boards which resolved the non payment of holiday pay for several hundred Classroom Assistants, which amounted in some instances to a considerable amount of money. We also raised a number of other concerns we had in respect of contractual terms and conditions not being applied in some areas. The Minister voiced his concern that this could occur anywhere in the Education Sector and agreed to consider the matter further if representations were made to him by the union as he was more than happy to engage with NIPSA on any major issue which it was concerned about.
The meeting ended with the Minister committing himself and his colleagues to meaningful engagement with NIPSA and the other unions and assured us that he would be happy to listen to any concerns we may have in the coming period.
This was a useful and positive meeting with the Minister on a range of issues. However, regrettably the issue of massive job cuts has not been resolved and we therefore advised the Minister that we had no alternative but to ballot our members for Industrial Action in the Autumn.
A further bulletin will issue to members as developments happen on any of the issues reported above.
Yours sincerely
PADDY MACKEL
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