Hugh Reilly: The demise of conserved salaries is no cause to rush to the barricades.

Published on Friday 7 January 2011 18:43

"Show me the money!" is a phrase associated with the film Jerry Maguire, but it could easily be the mantra of conserved salary teachers.

Perhaps if I were on a conserved salary, I'd have a different opinion of the gravy train that is about to hit the buffers, but, cursed with a sense of fairness, I somehow don't think I would.

In my view, it's absurd that a classroom teacher, doing exactly the same job as a conserved salary colleague next door, is thousands of pounds worse off.

I could see the point if those with a protected remuneration package accepted extra responsibilities - for example, helping students with UCAS forms, mentoring probationer teachers, etc - but under the present arrangement, a conservee is under no obligation to take on further duties.

It may be only anecdotal, but in my experience, not a single conservee has volunteered to take on extra work to justify the extra money.

No-one is advocating that a conserved-salary individual should be suddenly deprived of the undeserved payment. They, like me, have bills to pay.

But the iniquitous situation could easily be solved by conservees not receiving annual salary increases until pay parity is achieved.

The conserved-salary brigade complain, somewhat unconvincingly in my opinion, that it is not their fault, that somehow a "big bad boy handed me the cash and ran away".

Unaware of the heavy irony, some portray themselves to be victims of the system.

Apologists for the undeserving rich plead that the inflated remuneration package helps to soothe the pain of the loss of status suffered when their post of responsibility disappeared as a result of McCrone or of a job-sizing policy.

"Because you're worth it" works for L'Oreal, but it is something of a hollow slogan when applied to conserved-salary teachers.

I have some sympathy for the view that the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) cannot be blamed for securing such a lucrative reward for a minority of its members.

On the other hand, at a time of school closures and a decline in the number of teaching posts, perhaps the EIS should consider the negative impact that conserved-salary payments have on council education budgets.

The demise of conserved salaries is no cause to rush to the barricades.