TEACHERS in Scotland will be balloted on taking industrial action after a leading union rejected the latest pay offer.
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country’s largest teaching union, has announced its intention to seek authorisation from the National Executive to open a consultative ballot of union members.
The union’s salary committee met on Thursday to reject the current 5% pay offer from local government body Cosla.
Scottish teachers have asked for a 10% pay increase for the 2022/23 school year which the EIS union say is “fair” and “reasonable” in light of rising inflation.
The union rejected a 2.2% pay offer in June before rejecting a 3.5% pay offer earlier this month.
The latest talks of a 5% offer has been described as “wholly unsatisfactory” by EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley.
She said the pay offer would amount to “no offer at all” when considered alongside rising inflation.
Rejecting the latest offer, the union now intends to ask members whether they will support industrial action, up to and including strike action, in pursuit of an improved pay settlement.
Bradley said: “We have now received three different offers from local authority employers, and each one has been wholly unsatisfactory.
“First, we were offered a paltry 2% and this was rejected out-of-hand. Then, several months of pay decline later, Cosla came back with an insulting 3.5% offer, which, with rocketing rates of inflation was miles away from being acceptable.
“Now, teachers’ employers are proposing a 5% offer that is still well below the current RPI inflation rate of 12.3%.
“In real terms, this is no offer at all. Rather, it amounts to an over 7% pay cut for Scotland’s teachers and that is something that we will never accept.
“With the cost-of-living continuing to soar, and with inflation projected to rise even higher to record levels in the year ahead, Cosla and the Scottish Government must come up with a much fairer deal for Scotland’s teachers.”
The ballot arrangements will be confirmed next week.
Des Morris, EIS salaries convener, said the response to the latest offer was “unanimous” and caused “profound disappointment, and deep and growing anger”.
“Teachers are angry that their employers seem to think that a real-terms pay cut of more than 7% is an acceptable pay offer to make to Scotland’s hard-working teaching professionals,” he said.
He added: “Scotland’s teachers have waited long enough for a decent settlement and must use this ballot to send a very strong and very clear message to Cosla and the Scottish Government to pay us fairly, or we will take strike action and vacate our classrooms.”
It comes as strike action grows across Scotland with school staff such as janitors and catering staff walking out for three days in September.
And cleansing staff from 20 local authorities will be on strike from Friday amid pay disputes.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting a fair pay offer for teachers through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers, the body that negotiates teachers’ pay and conditions of service.
“It is for local government, as the employer, to make any revised offer of pay. Industrial action would not be in anyone’s interest, least of all learners and parents.
“This Government has a strong record of support for teachers, having backed a substantial 13% pay rise between 2018 and 2021, higher than elsewhere at the time.”
