Meeting of the Parliament 08 May 2024
I do not know whether Ms Duncan-Glancy has seen the news today, but her party has just watered down its new deal for working people, to the point that Unite the union has, I believe, described it as a grotesque betrayal. Therefore, she should take that up with her party leader this afternoon.
What we need to see is far more enforcement by the Scottish Funding Council of national fair work conditionality and of fair work conditions that are agreed at local level between individual colleges and unions. As far as I can tell, the outcome agreements that are supposed to include that are barely scrutinised by the Funding Council. There needs to be far more robust scrutiny.
I am proud of the fact that college boards must now include at least two trade union representatives—that policy was delivered by the Scottish Greens in our time in government. However, college governance overall needs to be strengthened to a far greater degree. I urge the minister to consider proposals to include local elected councillors on college boards, to ensure that colleges are rooted in their local community and that there is a connection between colleges and councils as two key drivers of local economies.
We need to consider the issues that have arisen in specific colleges such as City of Glasgow College, where the board has been unable or unwilling to provide the effective scrutiny of senior management that is required. It was only when the local industrial dispute was taken out of that local setting and addressed at a regional level that progress was made. I think that the proximity of board members to senior management was a key contributing factor in how protracted and distasteful that dispute became.
There are far more proposals that we could go through. We should move college principals into the chief executive pay framework element of the public sector pay policy. It is not right that a number of college principals in this country are paid more than the First Minister. We need to address the recommendations that were made in the Strathesk Resolutions report, which will require both sides to move out of their comfort zones.
There is so much more that we can do. As a Parliament of minorities, we now have the opportunity to come together on points of agreement and do that. I hope that we will seize that opportunity.
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