“Fire and rehire” practices, such as those controversially affecting teachers at an independent school in Glasgow, should be outlawed by the government, members of a Scottish teaching union have argued today.
NASUWT Scotland is calling on first minister Humza Yousaf “to address the despicable actions of his former school” - Hutchesons’ Grammar in Glasgow - and to “shut off legal loopholes which allow employers to engage in fire and rehire practices”,
According to NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach, fire and rehire tactics have already swept across the independent school sector in England and are now creeping north of the border.
Dr Roach predicts there will now be further attempts by other schools in the independent sector in Scotland to seek to undermine teachers’ basic terms and conditions unless ministers intervene.
Hutchesons’ Grammar has sought to force staff to sign contracts removing them from the Scottish Teachers’ Pension Scheme (STPS), and staff have protested at the prospect of being forced into an inferior pensions scheme. If they did not agree, staff were told they would be sacked.
NASUWT Scotland members at the school are planning to take four days of strike action over the changes, starting on Tuesday 30 May.
Meanwhile, members of the EIS teaching union at the school have voted strongly in favour of taking strike action over the plans - with 78 per cent of those who voted in a statutory ballot, which closed last week, saying they were willing to strike. The EIS has yet to announce strike dates.
School defends teacher pension change
In its defence, the school has said it is offering “a different pension, not an inferior one” and the STPS is being replaced with “a generous defined contribution scheme”. It has also said it is “necessary to cap one of the school’s biggest costs” given “current financial headwinds”.
Today Dr Roach said: “We are worried that, without action from the Scottish government, the situation at Hutchesons’ could set a precedent which would embolden other employers to seek to impose similar detrimental changes to teachers’ terms and conditions.
“We appeal to the first minister to address the despicable actions of his former school and to prevent further instances of such bullying behaviour in the future by clamping down on the legal loopholes which allow employers to engage in fire and rehire practices.”
Mike Corbett, NASUWT Scotland national official, said the stance of the NASUWT and other trade unions would “make other employers think twice before embarking on any similar moves”
However, he added that rather than leaving it to trade unions to stand up against “bullying employers”, the Scottish government should “show it is on the side of working people and act to outlaw the use of fire and rehire”.
In April a Scottish government spokesperson said that it “does not support the use of fire and rehire practices”, while adding: “We have no role in the pay and conditions or contracts of teachers in the independent [schools] sector.”
