More Equal Than Others

The Scottish government has announced a review of the McCrone Agreement - which gave Scottish teachers guarantees on pay and conditions back in 2001.

The deal cost the Scottish government (and taxpayers) over £800 million at the time - and this enormous figure became built into the base budget.

So if you want to know why the budget of Scottish councils doubled in the ten years to 1997 - and where this money went - part of the answer lies in the huge cost of things like the McCrone Agreement.

Now I'm all in favour of good conditions for council workers - including teachers.

But I don't agree that some workers - should be more equal than others - how can that be fair?

Some people have already called for Scottish teachers work longer hours - because at the moment they are required to teach for only 64% (22.5 hours) of their working week - the other 36% is reserved for lesson preparation.

And of course teachers are not required to be at work during the school holidays - which means they get more annual leave than anyone else - albeit at fixed periods during the year.

So a government review of the McCrone Agreement is both timely and sensible.

The pay and conditions of Scottish council workers should be set in a way that is fair to everyone - be they a part-time cleaner or the council's chief executive.

Giving preferential treatment to one group - teachers or anyone else - is simply ridiculous in this day and age.

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