Members of Scotland’s largest teaching union have voted to accept a pay deal and have called off strikes.
Teachers with the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) backed a deal which will see a 7 per cent pay rise backdated to April 2022, a further 5 per cent next month, and another 2 per cent in January. This was the sixth deal that was put to them.
Some 90 per cent of EIS members who took part in the vote backed the pay offer, with 10 per cent rejecting it. There was a turnout of 82 per cent.
It comes after the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) union announced its members had backed the offer on Thursday.
EIS and SSTA leaders had recommended members accept the deal.
NASUWT members are also involved in the dispute. NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach slammed the latest offer from Scottish Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville as “only a paltry improvement” on the previous proposal.
That union is also balloting its members on the deal.
The EIS members’ approval of the deal came after a breakthrough in negotiations last week which saw the union pause strikes set to be staged in the constituencies of senior politicians. This included First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's Glasgow Southside seat.
The union had also planned a 20-day campaign of rolling strikes in every part of Scotland.
The pay dispute between councils and the teaching unions had become bitterly contested with the first walk out taking place last November.
Somerville labelled the latest deal a “historic offer” which she said would see teacher pay “increase by 33% from January 2018 to January 2024”.
She said when the offer was tabled last week: “We have looked for compromise and we have arrived at a deal that is fair, affordable and sustainable for everyone involved. The Scottish Government is supporting this deal with total funding of over £320 million across this year and next.”
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