SCOTLAND’s largest teaching trade union has defended its hiring processes after giving a £53,000 a year job to the general secretary’s younger brother.
Pat Flanagan, whose sibling Larry leads the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), was given the prized role of “area officer” by an internal union panel he was a member of until recently.
Liz Smith, the shadow education secretary for the Scottish Tories, said: “This is an important role within the EIS and it is important that the best possible candidate is hired for the job. Given this appointment will likely raise a few eyebrows, it is essential that the EIS can demonstrate that all appointment processes are fair and free from any bias."
Picture: Liz Smith MSP
The EIS, which represents teachers and lecturers and has over 55,000 members, is regarded as of the country’s most formidable unions.
Larry Flanagan, a former English teacher, became general secretary in 2012 after succeeding the popular Ronnie Smith. His brother Pat, who taught maths, used to be EIS president and has been a local secretary for the union.
A vacancy arose last year for an EIS area officer in the north east, which involves representing members in grievance and disciplinary matters, recruiting and retaining members, training union representatives, negotiating with employers and providing support to local EIS associations.
The salary scale was between £47,004 and £53,418 and 38 days of annual leave and 12 public holidays were offered.
After the EIS publicly advertised the job the general secretary’s brother was appointed. The decision was made by the EIS appointments panel, which Pat Flanagan was active on until he decided to apply for the job, at which point he withdrew from any involvement in the committee.
Read more: How should the SNP Government use its new powers to slash child poverty?
The general secretary is also part of a pool of individuals eligible to serve on the panel, but an EIS spokesperson said in this case he “played absolutely no part at any stage of the appointment process”.
According to the job description, all area officers are accountable to the general secretary and act under his general direction.
A spokesperson for the EIS said: “Pat Flanagan was a member of the appointments panel but withdrew from involvement in the panel on making the decision to apply for the post of Area Officer. He took no part in any of its short-leeting or interviews for any Institute post after submitting his application for the Area Officer position. The General Secretary also took no part in the leeting and interview process for the Area Officer position.
“Discussions at any appointment panel are, of course, a strictly confidential matter. However, all candidates for the post of Area Officer were asked the same questions and given the same tasks to perform based on the essential criteria specified in the job description.”
Asked when Pat Flanagan came off the panel, the spokesman said: “He ceased to be active on the panel when deciding to apply for the Area Officer post. His departure from the panel was formalised on his resignation from EIS Council in January, as a consequence of his selection as Area Officer.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel