Salmond to offer no compulsory redundancies in return for pay freeze

First Minister Alex Salmond is to seek a deal with Scotland’s trade unions that would guarantee no compulsory redundancies across the public sector.

He told the Scottish National Party’s spring conference in Glasgow at the weekend that, if he wins the Holyrood election in May, he would attempt to secure an agreement on a continued pay freeze and more flexibility in return for the protection of existing jobs.

‘I believe that such an agreement could and should be extended across the public sector, through local government, through our schools and also into our colleges as well as throughout our health service,’ the first minister said in his speech on March 12.

He added that it was ‘important to have valuable staff properly valued’ and that it was also important to the economy.

In his last speech before the May election, Salmond guaranteed to continue the SNP government’s policy of free university education, despite the changes in England where universities will be allowed to raise existing tuition fees from September 2012.

He said some university principals in Scotland feared that Scotland would fall behind England as a result of its no fees policy but he stressed that he do not believe this would happen.

He added: ‘We do not intend to withdraw the state from higher education. Any funding gap will be closed.

‘We would only fail if we were to betray our traditions and mortgage the future. So, when it comes to the question of university fees or graduate taxes, I know where I stand.

‘The rocks will melt with the sun before I allow tuition fees to be imposed on Scottish students – upfront or backdoor.’

Meanwhile, the council tax freeze in Scotland looks set to continue irrespective of whether the SNP or its nearest rivals, Labour, win the election.

The SNP is already committed to continuing its tax freeze. And in a significant policy U-turn also announced on March 12, Labour leader Iain Gray said his party would not increase the tax for the next two years and keep rises below inflation for three years after that.