Ahead of the start of the 124th STUC Annual Conference today, GMB Scotland members from care, nursing, refuse, ambulance, and school support services, will tell Ministers, “We’re worth more!” as they campaign for a rejection of the NHS and COSLA pay offers for 2021.
GMB workplace representatives in NHS Scotland and COSLA are strongly urging members to reject the respective 4 per cent and £800 increases for the lowest paid workers, arguing the Scottish Government can and should go further after the last twelve months.
The union’s consultative ballot in COSLA will run until Thursday 22 April, and until Wednesday 5 May in NHS Scotland.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Drew Duffy said:“We were told at the start of the pandemic that Scotland was prepared for COVID-19, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
“Health and social care staff tackled the first wave of COVID-19 without proper PPE, home carers were left without workplace testing until January, and school support staff were an afterthought in the education recovery plan.
“From PPE, testing, sick pay support and socially distanced working arrangements, everything that’s been put in place to protect the workers on which we all depend had to be fought for by the workers’ themselves.
“And after a wretched year and desperate decade, where their modest incomes have been cut by thousands of pounds, our members are prepared to fight again for their proper value, against pay offers that don’t amount to much more than a £10 a week increase for many.
“They’ve heard the applause and they’ve read all the political platitudes, but now they are telling the Scottish Government to listen, and the message is clear: “We’re worth more.”
The continuing safety concerns due to COVID-19 means that the 2021 annual Congress will be held as a digital event.
Delegates from over 50 affiliated unions and trades union councils, as well as the STUC equalities committees, will meet over three days to debate and agree new policies.
We will also hear from sisters and brothers from other Trade Union Centres and from politicians.
The STUC General Council will deliver its report of the past 6 months work.
The digital format of Congress limits some of the things we can do but we still have a busy fringe event as well as expo sessions from our sponsors and supportive organisations.
You can watch the whole of Congress live on Facebook or YouTube!
200 workers sacked in national ‘Fire and Rehire’ dispute
British Gas doesn’t give a toss for either customers or staff – and that is shown by the mass sackings of engineers who are badly needed by customers to clear huge backlog, says the GMB trade union.
British Gas went ahead with yesterday’s mass sacking of striking gas engineers who refused to submit to corporate bullying to accept a 15% cut in pay rates and other imposed changes in terms and conditions.
This coincides with British Gas suspending the sale of boiler insurance cover amid scenes of ‘van graveyards’ from the vans returned by the sacked gas engineers.
This mass sackings were enacted as gas engineers took part on the 43rd day of strike action in the long-running, deadlocked and increasingly bitter dispute.
British Gas announced in July last year that staff in the Field staff bargaining group who refused to accept imposed 15% cuts in pay rates and other changes would be sacked.
GMB says the company bullied the rest of the staff in the Field staff bargaining group to sign terms they had overwhelmingly rejected and still don’t accept.
These GMB members at British Gas have already taken 42 days of strike action against the imposition of the 15% cuts in pay rates and other changes via “fire and rehire” notices.
In addition, a national official “lockout” dispute between British Gas and GMB will become effective from 14 April and will include further strike action and action short of a strike.
The strikes have led to a backlog of millions of customers waiting for planned service visits and hundreds of thousands having to wait for emergency repairs.
British Gas has suspended sale of the standard boiler service insurance.
Justin Bowden, GMB Regional Secretary said:“That British Gas doesn’t give a toss for either customers or staff is shown by the mass sackings of engineers it needs so badly for customer services that it has suspended the sale of boiler insurance cover.
“The ‘graveyards of vans’ returned by the sacked gas engineers shows this.
“These sacked gas engineers are badly needed by customers to clear the huge backlog of missed planned annual service visits and repairs.
“There is sadly nothing in law to stop corporate bullying by companies of their own staff to sign terms they don’t accept and sacking those who don’t submit to this bullying.
“But GMB members won’t accept the outcome of the bullying. This is why we are staging the 43rd day of strike action today.
“I have news for Mr O’Shea. This is not the end of the dispute. As well as being in dispute with his own staff he is now in dispute with the national union GMB.
“This is why this dispute will continue and become an official national lockout dispute. There will be more strikes and action short of strikes.
“The British Gas leadership disaster reaches its low point today (April 14) with mass sackings of British Gas Engineers – in the only consistently profitable part of the company – by a management team too stupid to see the true value of a uniquely skilled and loyal workforce.
“With hundreds of thousands waiting in the backlog for service, customers have been treated as collateral and so, it seems, too will staff – as Mr O’Shea prepares to go down in history as the first major CEO to mass sack his highly skilled and qualified engineers.
“They are his most valuable asset. He will be universally condemned by politicians and public alike for doing so.
“The arrogant gamble has been lost. Any fool can start a war and, it seems, ruin a good business.
“History will not be kind to Mr O’Shea or the Centrica Board who failed to rein in him and his out-of-control leadership team.”
A statement posted on the British Gas website yesterday said: “Unfortunately, due to strike action by some engineers on Wednesday the 14th of April, we’re only able to offer a very limited emergency service.
“During this time we’ll be prioritising our most vulnerable customers, but we’ll do our best to help everyone as quickly as we can. Thanks for understanding – we’re so sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.”
A Centrica spokesperson said: “There is a job for everyone at the end of this process. We are changing the way we work to give our customers the service they want and protect the future of our company and 20,000 UK jobs. Today marks the end of the period for our employees to sign new contracts.
“These are highly competitive, and our changes are reasonable. Around 98% of the entire company has accepted and we hope the remaining, also sign and choose to stay. We have not cut base pay or changed our generous final salary pensions. Our gas service engineers remain some of the best paid in the sector, earning £40,000 a year minimum.
“While change is difficult, reversing our decline which has seen us lose over three million customers, cut over 15,000 jobs and seen profits halved over the last 10 years is necessary. The changes will also unlock our ability to grow jobs and hire 1000 green apprentices over the next two years.’’
Health and social care workers made up 70% of reported occupational deaths, GMB Freedom of Information request reveals
More than 350 deaths and 31,000 infections have been linked to Covid-19 exposure at work, new Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures reveal.
The data, released in response to a GMB Freedom of Information request, shows that 31,000 the suspected cases of occupational exposure to coronavirus were reported to the Health and Safety Executive between 10 April 2020 and 13 March 2021.
367 workers’ deaths were suspected to be linked to workplace exposure to the coronavirus during the same period.
It’s likely the figures significantly underestimate the true extent of exposure and deaths among workers, warned the GMB Union.
GMB calls for urgent investment to make workplaces safe and full sick pay cover so that workers can afford to self-isolate.
Health and social care workers accounted for the overwhelming majority of infections and deaths notified under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). 70 per cent of occupational deaths, or 257 fatalities, were recorded for workers in this group.
In total, 2,134 staff infections and seven deaths that were linked to workplace exposure were also recorded in educational settings since the start of September, despite Ministers’ repeated assurances that schools and other educational establishments were safe.
Occupational infections peaked in January at 5,710 and the highest monthly count of worker deaths (60) was recorded in February, according to the figures.
26,705 infections were reported in England since 10 April 2020, while 2,228 infections were reported in Wales and 2,447 were reported in Scotland. Northern Ireland is not covered by the figures.
Reports of infections and deaths should be filed ‘where there is reasonable evidence that the worker was exposed because of their work,’ according to the HSE, which means that many infections that cannot be directly attributed to a person’s work will not be recorded. The HSE acknowledges that ‘RIDDOR suffers from under-reporting’ and that ‘it is likely that [COVID-19] disease reporting is lower’ than the true rate.
The new figures, which had not previously been published, were uploaded to the HSE’s website following a GMB Freedom of Information Act request. The Information Commissioner’s Office issued a Decision Notice last week which required the HSE to reply to the request after it initially failed to respond.
Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary, said: “No one should go to work in fear of their life. Each worker’s death was preventable and the damning reality is that too many workplaces are still not safe.
“The fact that 70% of reported workers’ deaths are in the health and care sector should be a wake-up call, and sadly these figures are likely the tip of the iceberg.
“Two thousand infections and seven deaths in educational workplaces since September is the final proof that Ministers reopened schools before they were safe.
“Across the country too many people still face insecure workplaces and inadequate PPE.
“These figures shine a new light on the abject failure of too many to keep workplaces safe. Seven out of ten reported infections were since the start of the second wave, when the steps required to limit the spread of the virus were well understood.
“GMB calls on Ministers to urgently meet with unions, and for full sick pay cover to be provided to end the financial pressure that is leading to presenteeism and a greater spread of this terrible disease.’
Teaching union the EIS has launched its education manifesto ahead of May’s Scottish Parliament elections.
The Manifesto, entitled For an Education Led Recovery outlines EIS policy in key areas including Early Years education, Primary and Secondary schools, Additional Support Needs, Instrumental Music, the impact of poverty and tackling inequality, valuing teachers, Further & Higher Education, and social justice.
The EIS, which is not affiliated to any political party, does not make any recommendation on who its members should vote for, but highlights the key issues that teachers and lecturers may wish to consider when deciding how to vote.
The Manifesto has been published today to coincide with a meeting of the EIS national Council.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said, “Scotland has a proud educational history, and education is one of the key devolved areas of responsibility for the Scottish Parliament.
“That centrality has been brought into sharp relief during the Coronavirus pandemic, with politicians of all parties frequently highlighting the vital importance of education to your young people, to our economy, and to the future of our country as a whole.”
Mr Flanagan continued, “Despite its importance, education has been subjected to many challenges in recent years, even prior to the extreme stresses brought by Coronavirus. Investment in schools, in staff, and in support for young people has been insufficient.”
“Politicians have been quick to talk up the need for education to lead the way in the nation’s recovery from the pandemic, but less quick to commit to delivering long term investment and resources to ensure that this can be achieved.”
Mr Flanagan added: “At the current time more than 1 in 10 teachers are on temporary contracts or ‘zero hours’ supply staff lists. That is quite scandalous and is one of the reasons why we lose qualified teachers who struggle to get permanent posts in their chosen career.
“From the 2020 graduation group, for example, over 500 newly qualified teachers are no longer registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).”
Mr Flanagan concluded, “The challenge around education recovery is immense and if we are to meet the needs of young people, Scotland needs more teachers.”
“This would help to reduce class sizes, ensuring that students receive tailored support that meets their needs; it would enable an increase in the specialist provision required for young people with Additional Support Needs; it would support our pupils and students who have suffered a traumatic experience during the pandemic, with the impact often being felt most acutely by young people already facing disadvantage caused by poverty.”
“For all of these reasons, our politicians must commit in their manifestos to delivering the investment required to deliver education recovery.”
Headteachers and Depute Headteachers from across Scotland have shared their extreme disappointment at the Scottish Government’s decision not to allow schools to move to remote learning as a means of protecting the health of staff, pupils and their families in the final week before Christmas.
A meeting of the EIS Headteacher (HT) and Depute Headteacher (DHT) Network, held on Friday, heard first-hand testimony from HTs and DHTs over the severe additional workload pressure that has been placed on school management teams as a result of COVID contact tracing requirements whenever a pupil or staff member tests positive for the virus.
Headteacher and Network Convener Lorraine McBride said, “The COVID pandemic has had a severe impact in our schools and has created huge stresses on everyone within our communities.
“Quite apart from the impact on the physical health of many teachers and students, there has also been a severe impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Added to this has been the huge additional workload burden generated by the demands of the contract tracing system, which frequently interrupts weekend and evenings on top of taking up swathes of time during the school day that should be being spent on other essential priorities.”
“Whenever there is a positive case linked to a school, this creates a demand on SMTs to quickly track, trace and isolate every pupil and staff member who has come into close contact with the infected person. This is additional workload, over and above the many usual demands on SMT’s time, and it has been imposed upon us with little or nothing in the way of tangible support.”
Ms McBride continued, “It is concrete support that we need – not just fine words from the Scottish Government or our employers telling us how much they appreciate us. Many HTs and DHTs have been left absolutely devastated by the Scottish Government’s decision not to allow schools to close their buildings early and move to remote learning in the final week before Christmas.
“This decision means that, where positive cases are identified late, SMTs may be expected to deliver or support contact tracing work over the Christmas period. The Scottish Government’s decision also significantly increases the risk of pupils and staff taking the virus into their homes, or into the homes of potentially vulnerable family members, during the festive period.”
Ms McBride added, “All we we’re asking for was for school buildings to close a few days early, in order to protect us all and our families. Education would have continued via remote learning and we were absolutely not asking for extra holidays, as has been falsely claimed elsewhere.
“In failing to take a small, common sense, step to protect teachers, pupils and their families, the Scottish Government is risking what little goodwill remains amongst a teaching profession that has been worn down to the point of physical and mental exhaustion over this past year.”
Parents and carers should wear masks when collecting school kids
Guidance on school safety has been updated to take account of public health advice and Scotland’s new approach to suppressing coronavirus (COVID-19).
The guidance, which outlines additional protection measures at all five levels in the Strategic Framework, comes into force on Monday 2 November.
Across all levels, face coverings should be worn by adults at all times where they cannot keep two metres from other adults and/or children and young people in primary and secondary schools (with some exceptions in P1-2). Face coverings should also be worn by parents and other visitors to any school site (whether entering the building or otherwise), including parents at drop-off and pick-up.
In local authority areas in Levels 3 and 4, pupils in the senior phase – S4-6 – and their teachers should wear face coverings in classrooms, as well as when they are moving around the school and in communal areas.
Guidance for school staff and pupils at the highest clinical risk (shielding) has also been updated.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Keeping schools open remains our priority but that can only be the case if schools are safe. There have been tremendous efforts applied by staff and pupils to ensure this is the case and I thank them all for their efforts.
“We constantly review the guidance on school opening along with our local authority partners, trades unions, parental representatives and other stakeholders to ensure we are taking all the necessary measures to ensure our schools are safe.
“This strengthened guidance, produced in light of updated scientific and health advice, adds to the health mitigations that have been in place since schools opened in August.
“From Monday, there will be increased use of face coverings and new advice to help protect those in the shielding category.
“It is vital that all the measures are followed rigorously in schools. Doing that – together with the collective efforts of all of us across wider society – will help to ensure that schools can safely remain open.
“None of the levels in the framework require any automatic move to school closures or blended learning. However, no one can predict what the coming weeks and months will bring. Remote learning remains an important contingency for schools at all levels of the strategic framework and there has been considerable progress made in the provision of remote learning, should that be required.”
The updated guidance includes:
At Level 3
parents or guardians should discuss with their GP or clinician whether children with the highest clinical risk should attend school
employers should ensure that individual risk assessments for school staff members with the highest clinical risk are in place and updated appropriately, and staff should speak to their employer to ensure all appropriate protections are in place. If protections cannot be put in place, they can discuss with their GP or clinician to see if a fit note may be appropriate
At Level 4
the current advice is that children on the shielding list should not attend school in person. However, we will look further at how we can use individualised risk assessments to maximise attendance for such children during Level 4 restrictions
the majority of workplaces can be made safe for staff. To ensure this remains the case, employers should ensure that individualised risk assessments for school staff members with the highest clinical risk are in place and updated appropriately, and staff should speak to their employer to ensure all appropriate protections are in place. To provide reassurance on this, the Chief Medical Officer will issue a letter similar to a fit note which can be used in the few cases where, following updating of risk assessments and discussions with employers, it is not possible to make a workplace safe for staff
greater levels of testing in response to COVID-19 outbreaks in schools may be recommended by the Incident Management Team
PE in school settings should only take place out of doors
Non-essential activities or clubs outside the usual school timetable should be paused. This does not include regulated childcare operating from school premises
Other changes in the guidance reflect updated advice from the COVID-19 Advisory Sub Group on Education and Children’s Issues. Members concluded that indoor PE may now be brought into line with advice outwith school settings, with appropriate safety measures in place. This does not apply to indoor PE in schools in Level 4 areas.
The EIS has issued its initial response to the new COVID-19 Guidance for Schools, published by the Scottish Government.
EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said: “The strengthening of the School Guidance in a number of areas is a reflection of the greater risk posed by higher levels of community infection.
“Whilst the EIS supports the stronger advice in areas such as the use of face coverings and the critical need for adequate ventilation, we remain dissatisfied with the lack of specification on social distancing between pupils, which is exhorted but remains impossible to achieve in full classrooms.”
Mr Flanagan added, “The proposed mitigations at Level 4, essentially face coverings for senior pupils, are inadequate. The EIS is clear that Level 4 should trigger an automatic consideration of moves towards blended or remote learning.
“Schools cannot stay open at any cost; the safety of pupils and staff has to be the priority, especially those with increased vulnerabilities. In the event of any Council area moving into Level 4, the EIS is likely to consult affected members directly on their views.”
Two thirds of workers said their mental health has been harmed by the coronavirus crisis, a massive new survey by GMB has found.
In the poll of 13,500 public and private sector workers – thought to be the biggest of its kind during the pandemic – 66 per cent of respondents said that their work during the outbreak has had a serious negative impact on their mental health.
Other findings from the survey, released on World Mental Health Day, include:
61 per cent of workers say their job is causing them stress or is otherwise impacting on their mental health.
Fear of taking the coronavirus home was the frequently cited cause of stress at work (by 36 per cent of respondents), followed by workers’ fear for their own safety (by 30 per cent).
Front-line workers report being 70 per cent more anxious on average than official estimates for the whole population before the pandemic struck.
Workers in retail, schools, outsourced services, and care report experiencing the highest levels of anxiety.
GMB is campaigning for a ‘Mental Health at Work Act ‘specifying the approach and methods expected of all employers in managing mental health in the workplace.
If successful, the legislation would require absences due to poor mental health to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive on the same basis as physical injuries.
Nell Andrew, GMB National Equality and Inclusion Officer, said:“Shockingly, almost one in five adults have experienced some form of depression during the pandemic – almost doubling from before the crisis.
“These stark results show it’s not just workers’ physical health that’s being impacted by covid – but their mental health and well-being is too. And that’s a massive problem for everyone.
“Much more needs to be done to prevent poor mental health in the workplace, during the pandemic and beyond.
“We urgently need full mental health risk assessments to become the norm, because protecting workers’ mental health is just as vital as protecting physical health.
“As we face a second wave and widespread redundancies, we desperately need to protect at-risk industries and fully fund the public services that defend the mental health and wellbeing of the heroic workers who have keep the economy and society together.”
BREAKING NEWS: Secondary school pupils to wear face coverings from Monday
GMB has this morning (Tuesday 25 August) called on the Scottish Government to bring forward a COVID testing regime for every school across Scotland, after a survey of its members found that two-thirds of support staff in schools and nurseries do not feel safe at work.
The union has written to the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education John Swinney MSP, urging him to follow the interventions made in the social care sector by giving workers the opportunity to access COVID testing in their workplace.
Following a survey conducted between Thursday 20th and Monday 24th August of over 1,400 members employed in support staff roles, including cleaners, janitors, caterers and pupil support assistants, the union learned that:
The vast majority (96 per cent) believe regular testing should be offered at work;
Two-thirds (63 per cent) do not feel safe at their work;
Over one-fifth (23 per cent) have confirmed a suspected or positive case of COVID at work; and
Just under half (46 per cent) would not know what to do if there was a suspect or confirmed case of COVID at their work.
The results are published against the backdrop of increasing concerns over COVID 19 infection and transmission in Scotland’s schools.
GMB Scotland Organiser Helen Meldrum said:“Over a week since the return of Scotland’s schools, it’s clear that many support staff do not feel safe at their work and overwhelming majority of them want to be able to access a COVID test at work.
“If support staff need to book a test, they must absorb the financial costs and time implications to do so, and for a chronically low-paid workforce with many employed on multiple contracts across multiple workplaces, that’s just not credible.
“The failure over the summer months to listen to the voices of school support staff echoes what we witnessed in care earlier this year, and in this case the political focus has been on teachers and pupils while support staff have been forgotten.
“You cannot have a safe return to full-time education if a significant chunk of the workforce needed do not feel sufficiently safe, valued or heard by our decision-makers, and that’s why we urged the Deputy First Minister to intervene now.”
A school in Dundee has been closed with pupils and staff asked to self-isolate after it was linked to 27 new cases in the city.
JUST ANNOUNCED:
Scottish secondary school pupils will have to wear face coverings in corridors and communal areas from next Monday, Education Secretary John Swinney has confirmed.
The interim results of a survey indicate that the majority of teachers retain serious concerns over the re-opening of schools this week.
The EIS opened the survey on Tuesday afternoon and, by Thursday morning, more than 24,000 teachers had completed the survey. The overwhelming message from the interim results is that, while teachers want to see schools re-open, they remain unconvinced that sufficient measures have been put in place to ensure safety.
Key data from the interim survey results includes:
A total of 24,354 teachers completed the survey from its launch on Tuesday 4 August to the morning of Thursday 6 August.
64% of teachers support the decision to re-open schools, but only 18% express confidence that schools are currently safe – indicating that much more needs to be done to ensure safety.
A minority of teachers believe that sufficient safeguards have been put in place to support the safe re-opening of schools.
Just 3% of teachers are ‘very confident’ that there is sufficient evidence that COVID-19 is sufficiently under control to support a safe return to school
Only 23% of teachers are ‘confident or very confident’ that an established capacity to test, trace and isolate is in place to support a safe return, with 58% expressing a lack of confidence.
Under 26% of teachers are confident that sufficient operational changes – such as effective social distancing and enhanced hygiene routines – will be in place to support a safe return to school with 60% lacking confidence.
72% of teachers support testing for asymptomatic members of staff to help supress the spread of COVID
62% of teachers feel either ‘somewhat unsafe’ or ‘very unsafe’ about returning to school next week.
Commenting on the interim findings, EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said, “The interim results of this survey highlight that Scotland’s teachers continue to have serious questions over the re-opening of schools next week.”
“The fact that more than 24,000 teachers completed the survey in a little over a day illustrates the high degree of concern that remains over COVID-19 and schools. Teachers want to see schools re-opening, so that they can get back to working with pupils in the classroom environment – but they are very clear that this has to be done safely.”
“The initial indications from this major survey confirm that teachers believe that much more still needs to be done to ensure their safety, and the safety of pupils and others within the school, can be properly protected as schools re-open.
“The EIS will be sharing both the initial and final results of this survey with the Scottish Government and local authorities, and will be seeking urgent discussions on the mitigations that teachers still want to see – such as sufficient social distancing, testing for asymptomatic staff, and the use of face coverings where required to ensure safety.”
The EIS survey will remain open until today (Monday) and full results will be released thereafter.
Edinburgh’s children start the return to school from Wednesday this week.
The Executive Committee of the EIS has raised significant concerns over guidelines for the re-opening of Scotland’s schools.
With schools set to re-open next week, the EIS has written to Deputy First Minister John Swinney calling for a number of actions to be taken, as a matter of urgency, to protect pupils, staff and the wider community from the risk of COVID-19 infection.
In the letter, EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan says, “I write to you in order to raise some significant concerns regarding the now published Guidelines for the reopening of schools.
“You will recall that I raised at the CERG (COVID Education Recovery Group) meeting of July 24th, the EIS view that whilst the Guidelines represented the generality of where agreement was possible, they nonetheless fell short from an EIS perspective in significant areas.”
The letter goes on to outline EIS concerns in a number of areas, including physical distancing and class sizes, procedures for testing for COVID in schools, contradictions between procedures for schools and other settings such as public transport and shops, and concerns over staff members who have been shielding.
On the issue of physical distancing, the letter highlights that the Scottish Government guidance includes an, “Exhortation to move to smaller classes to support physical distancing where possible, without specification as to how that was to be done. The inherent contradiction in urging such a significant mitigation but failing completely to instruct its implementation is a major concern.”
The letter also calls for: “The strongest mitigations possible in place and erring on the side of caution particularly where there is conflicting or emerging evidence in relation to the behaviour of the virus and its capacity for transmission among and by children and young people. These should include specific physical distancing guidelines for pupils.”
On testing, the EIS letter says, “We would urge that further consideration be given to a more proactive approach to supporting teacher and staff confidence that they are working in Covid-secure schools, by providing asymptomatic access to regular testing.”
And, on the issue of staff who have been shielding, the letter says, “Teachers who have been shielding for the past three or four months under Scottish Government direction, are now concerned that next week they could be back in front of a full class of pupils. This seems to be an enormous leap and one which does not sit well with the First Minister’s warning to those who had been shielding until August 1st, about continuing to be especially cautious.”
Calling for further action to ensure safety, the letter goes on to state, “The EIS welcomes the fact that Scotland appears to have successfully suppressed the virus at this point in time; however, we would not wish to see the reopening of schools act as a catalyst to a resurgence. That means we must ensure that school buildings are COVID-secure environments.
“Across the globe we are witnessing how quickly things can deteriorate. Teachers, pupils, and parents have every reason to be anxious about schools reopening. Addressing the concerns raised in this letter would go some way to offering reassurance.”
The EIS will open a new survey of its members in schools across Scotland to seek their views on these issues and on the steps that should be taken to ensure that schools are safe. The survey will run this week, and the results will inform further discussions with the Scottish Government and local authorities ahead of next week’s planned re-opening of schools.
A copy of the EIS letter to Mr Swinney is available for information.
Edinburgh’s pupils will return to school next week.
