Chamber and committees

Thanks, convener. My first question, which is for Shona Struthers, is on the state of industrial relations in colleges. That is a very familiar topic.

It has been quite some time now since the Strathesk Resolutions report was published. We have had the response from employers and the response from unions. We are now waiting for the Government’s proposals to take matters forward. In the intervening period, we are locked into another round of national industrial action over a pay dispute. Do you think that there has been any progress in national collective bargaining and industrial relations since that report was published?

On the wider issue of fair work, I am interested in your understanding of SFC funding conditions and how it evaluates outcome agreements. From the best I can gather, colleges’ commitments to fair work, where they are tied in with conditions around funding, are part of the outcome agreement. Are you aware of how or whether the SFC evaluates whether a college has met its fair work obligations?

On individual universities’ fair work agendas and their relations with trade unions, the major point of dispute in the university sector over recent years has primarily, although not entirely, been about pensions as a UK-wide issue. However, do you think that there are points for improvement in the Scottish sector specifically? Is there a role for the Scottish Government there? I am thinking beyond the obvious point that, if there was more money in the sector, there would probably be less unrest. Is there a role for the Scottish Government in improving industrial relations in the university sector, or should that, in your view, be left up to the institutions and the unions?

You will have heard the questions that I asked the first panel—they are similar to those that I asked the panellists last week. I am interested, in particular, in what the SFC’s role is in ensuring that colleges are fulfilling their fair work commitments. Correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that the primary way in which the SFC would be involved in that is through the college outcome agreements. If there are commitments to fair work in an outcome agreement, the SFC would have a role in checking that those have been fulfilled. Can you outline how that works in practice?

That is really useful. I would like to come back to what it looks like in practice if there is a problem and you need to get involved.

First, though, when an outcome agreement is being drafted, is each college allowed to take a bespoke approach to fair work, with quite a lot of flexibility, or do you approach them all with a minimum set of standards based on Scottish Government fair work policy? What are the baseline criteria? Do you say, “You cannot have a fair work agreement that does not at least meet X, Y and Z standards”?

Grand. Thank you very much.

Yes. I have been working my way through everybody who has come in, in advance of the next panel. It is getting a tip-off.

Is your ability to take action if a point of fair work conditionality is not met confined purely to what is in existing Scottish Government fair work policy? If a college had come to you on the basis of a local agreement with its trade unions and said, “This is one of our fair work policies and we want it to be part of our outcome agreement” and then, for whatever reason, it did not meet that or was unable to do so, would you still be able to take action? Would you have any role in that or is your role in ensuring that fair work conditionality is delivered confined to existing Scottish Government fair work policy?

If there were a breach, what options would be available to you? Would it simply be a case of clawing back money that was provided on the condition of the fair work agreement being met, or are other mechanisms available to you?

That is useful. Forgive me, as I should know this, but are the proposals that you just mentioned—on the powers that a future funding body or a reformed SFC might have—in the public domain, or have you submitted them directly to the Government?