Problems connecting to this site couldn't have come at a worse time than last night, so of course that's when it happened. I wasn't able to post anything from last night's excellent fringe meeting in support of the campaign to win Karen Reissmann's reinstatement.
And I wasn't able to provide an update on the latest situation with the pay debate. Apparently the Standing orders Committee met yesterday afternoon and ruled out of order the motion from the SGE which sought to facilitate the conference making a recommendation in a consultative ballot. Whether there were problems with the wording of the motion or not, the motion clearly sought to acheive the will of both the SGE and the conference. Refusing to allow it on the agenda leaves the SGE putting a motion which does not represent our position at all - since it would result in the ballot going out with no recommendation.
Unless something can be done this morning to encourage SOC to take a more enabling approach on this issue then it seems that conference will be offered three distinct positions. One from the SGE that it actually doesn't agree with, which would result in a consultative ballot being held with no recommendation. One from Scotland which would recommend members reject the three year offer but accept the PRB recommendation for this year - which the government and Unison's negotiators say is not necessarily on offer. And one from a group of branches calling for an industrial action ballot with a recommendation to reject and take action, a position which some delegates might feel goes too far too fast.
Ironically we might end up with none of these being accepted, in which case the conference could fall back on motions submitted before the offer was even made. Amendments to motion 18 from both the Admin and Clerical Sector and Manchester Community and Mental Health would commit us to rejecting any multi-year deal which fails to provide an above-inflation pay rise.
But that, like the drafting of those amendments themselves, is speculation. Watch this space.