Givan’s trade union-bashing education bill progresses at Stormont

North of Ireland MLAs have voted for an education bill which operates as a thinly disguised Trojan horse for attacking workers’ rights. Introduced by Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) education minister Paul Givan, the legislation seeks to prevent industrial action during school inspections.

This amounts to a serious government restriction on teachers’ capacity to secure better pay and conditions. It would add to the vast stack of legislation that makes Britain and the Six Counties (a decolonial term for the north of Ireland) among the worst in the world when it comes to anti-union law.

The margin of victory at the bill’s second stage was 46 members in favour, with 27 against. The DUP, Ulster Unionist Party, Traditional Unionist Voice and Alliance backed the toxic law’s progression. People Before Profit (PBP), Sinn Féin, and the Social Democratic and Labour Party voted against.

Bill would let Stormont “dictate who takes industrial action”

The bill’s text inserts numerous grounds on which a teacher would be engaging in “unacceptable professional conduct“, and therefore subject to punishment. For example, it includes if a teacher:

…encourages someone else to do something, or refrain from doing something, during the course of an inspection…

Prior to MLAs debating the bill, Gerry Carroll of People Before Profit hammered its contents, saying:

Once the principle is established that the government can dictate who takes industrial action and when, there’s no logical stopping point. I thought we lived in a democratic society.

Carroll urged the Alliance Party not to back the bill, saying they would make:

…themselves part of a consensus that says it’s the government’s prerogative to restrict the right to strike.

The PBP MLA for West Belfast said voting it through now and hoping for changes at committee stage would be a mistake:

Trusting Paul Givan to voluntarily strip out measures that serve his own political interests is, to put it generously, wishful thinking.

Expecting the DUP man to act in good faith is indeed deeply unwise. Givan is infamous for going on a junket to so-called ‘Israel’. This included a trip to a school in East Jerusalem that is part of the illegally occupied Palestinian land stolen by the Zionist entity post-1967. Of course, all of ‘Israel’ is stolen territory, but Givan was shockingly brazen in visiting the world’s foremost child-killers, while ostensibly being responsible for children’s wellbeing.

Nauseatingly, the man with the world’s most annoying voice – which correspondents should receive danger pay for listening to – claimed his bill attacking workers was actually all about the kids. Givan said his Education Inspections Bill:

…places the rights and wellbeing of children at its core.

He said it was necessary:

…as we face the potential of further industrial action in our education system once more…

Teachers already mistreated

The reason we are facing that is because teachers are crushed under unbearable workload pressures. As education minister, Givan takes a large share of the blame for that. As the BBC reported in April:

…91% of teachers in Northern Ireland are experiencing work-related burnout.

It’s insufficient to just offer lamentations of “won’t someone think of the children”, before then imposing top-down punishment on overworked teachers. Good legislation considers all those affected by it, and works with them to achieve the best outcome. It doesn’t simply impose dictats from on high.

Alliance MLA Michelle Guy emphasised the balance needed, saying:

…if the minister is serious about safeguarding [children], he must also be serious about the pressures facing teachers.

Education spokesperson Nick Mathison made similar points, while repeating ad nauseam that his party is focused on teachers. That was shortly before Alliance helpfully voted the teacher-bashing bill through to the next stage.

The bill’s other clauses included widening the remit of inspections so they could take in more venues operating in an educational capacity. It also calls for the:

Removal of exemption for religious education.

Extraordinarily, religious education was previously exempt from school inspections. It was essentially assumed that it was more like religious instruction, and ministers and priests apparently knew best. A recent Supreme Court ruling changed that, determining that the way it has been taught in the north of Ireland amounts to a form of illegal indoctrination. Inspections will be a way to ensure that failure does not continue.

Featured image via Getty/Jeff J. Mitchell

By Robert Freeman

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