Scottish teaching unions are to be offered an 11.5 per cent pay rise over two years for their members.
The offer - agreed tonight at a meeting of Scottish council leaders - would consist of a 6 per cent uplift this year, followed by a rise of 5.5 per cent next year.
Tes Scotland understands that the rise would be capped at £80,000, meaning that those earning over this amount would get a flat rate of £4,800 in 2022-23 and £4,400 in 2023-24.
The BBC is reporting that ministers have found around £120 million to fund the two-year deal and that this is part of a £300 million pot, which would also enable councils to offer their other staff a 5.5 per cent pay rise in 2023-24.
Teachers have been campaigning for a pay rise of 10 per cent this year but the best offer to date from councils and the government has been a single-year deal worth 5 per cent for most teachers, but 6.85 per cent for probationers.
This offer was little changed from an offer made last August.
Scotland’s largest teaching union the EIS has said that - to suspend strike action - there would need to be “significant movement” on the deal that has already been offered.
Tes Scotland understands that the EIS salaries committee - which is responsible for considering offers - is due to meet tomorrow morning.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley told Tes Scotland on Friday, when we exclusively revealed the Scottish government was gearing up to make an improved offer, that for months the unions had been indicating they were willing to talk about a two-year deal.
However, she added that “the figures have to be right” and whatever way the offer was “sliced and diced”, it had to be “credible”.
Tonight, she said: “It is unacceptable that details of a revised offer have been shared with the media before the offer has been made to teaching unions. Once we eventually receive the offer, it will then be for the EIS salaries committee to discuss the terms of that offer and to adopt a position in relation to it.
“In doing so, the salaries committee will consider the revisions to the offer in the context of the current cost-of-living crisis, the continuing extremely high level of inflation, which currently sits at almost 13.5 per cent on the [Retail Price Index] scale, and the sharp real-terms decline in the value of teacher pay since 2008.”
Ms Bradley added: “As bodies with stated commitments to sectoral collective bargaining and the principles of Fair Work, it is unfortunate that both the Scottish government and [local authorities’ body] Cosla have repeatedly sought to stage discussions outwith the agreed negotiating forum of the [Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers] and to create artificial links between negotiations on teachers’ pay and negotiations with other groups of workers.
“If the Scottish government and Cosla are truly committed to sectoral collective bargaining, as they say they are, then they must respect the agreed appropriate negotiating processes both for teachers and for other public sector workers.”
The latest wave of teacher strike action in Scotland came to an end on Tuesday of last week (7 February), with more strikes due to begin on Wednesday of next week (22 February).
This next planned action will be targeted at “key decision makers” and will involve teacher walkouts in five areas, including the constituencies of first minister Nicola Sturgeon and education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.
More national strikes are also planned for 28 February and 1 March, with 20 further days of rolling strikes across all local authority areas from 13 March to 21 April.
On Monday, in a statement, Ms Somerville said she hoped the offer would be enough to end the teacher pay dispute.
She said: ”We have been working very closely with Cosla, as the employers, and we hope that a new fair and affordable offer can be made to teachers within the next few days.
“If we can get this offer on the table, I hope trades union colleagues will take it back to their members so this dispute can be resolved without further disruption to children and young people’s education.
“I would repeat my call to the unions to suspend industrial action while discussions are continuing.”
