Teaching unions have this afternoon rejected the latest pay offer for teachers in Scotland.
Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, described the offer as “derisory” and said there was now “growing clamour” for industrial action.
The latest pay offer was unanimously rejected by the EIS salaries committee and, today, by teachers’ representatives at a meeting of the teachers’ panel of the SNCT (Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers).
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The EIS said that offer from the Scottish government and local authorities body Cosla amounted to the same 1.22 per cent pay award previously rejected by teaching unions, with a “meagre additional one-off payment”.
The EIS said that a salary claim for 2021-22 was submitted almost a year ago, calling for a pay award of between 3 per cent and 5 per cent. It added that the pay award was due to be settled over seven months ago.
Des Morris, EIS salaries convener and chair of the teachers’ side of the SNCT, said: “The latest revised offer from the Scottish government and Cosla is derisory. With inflation currently running at around 4 per cent we have already made very clear to the employers’ side that we will not accept an offer of 1.22 per cent for our members.
“For Cosla and the Scottish government to then take weeks to come back with essentially the same offer, with some minor cosmetic window-dressing added, is an insult to the professionalism and hard work of every teacher in Scotland.”
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “It is simply beyond belief that the employers have come back again with this paltry offer to Scotland’s teaching professionals. After many months of talking up the value of education and the value of teachers to the nation’s recovery from the pandemic, Cosla and the Scottish government then turn around and offer a real-terms pay cut to Scotland’s teachers.
“Months of dragging their feet has only served to further erode the value of an already pitiful offer, while also hardening the resolve of increasingly scunnered teachers to see their efforts appropriately acknowledged in their pay settlement.”
The national EIS council, which meets next week, will now consider the next steps.
The union said this afternoon: “While the preference of the EIS is always for a negotiated settlement, a growing clamour among members for a move to industrial action in pursuit of a fair pay award is sure to be a major consideration as EIS council decides its next steps.”
Meanwhile, the NASUWT teaching union has urged the Scottish government to “intervene and urgently commit more funding to help local authorities make a serious pay offer to teachers”.
NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach said: “Teachers are increasingly angry at the failure to agree a pay award that recognises the significant contribution they have made during the pandemic and continue to make as part of education recovery.
“The current proposals barely differ from the previous offer, made months ago, and still represent a significant real-terms pay cut for teachers. In the meantime, the cost of living is rising with the Consumer Price Index currently measured at 3.1 per cent and predicted by the Bank of England to rise to 5 per cent by April 2022.
“The failure of employers to come forward with a genuinely improved pay offer is not only failing teachers, but will also undermine the Scottish government’s plans for education recovery.”
Dr Roach added: “No option is being discounted by the union to obtain a fair pay award for teachers.”
The NASUWT said that, in a survey of 700 teachers, an “overwhelming majority indicated a willingness to take further action if necessary over the pay offer”.
Mike Corbett, NASUWT national official for Scotland, said: “Our members clearly expressed their anger at the earlier 1.22 per cent offer, with 85 per cent rejecting it. This tinkering around the edges will not address that anger and may only fuel it further.”
The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) also described the rejected teacher pay offer as “derisory” this afternoon.
SSTA salaries and conditions convener Paul Cochrane said: “This offer is an insult to teachers who worked assiduously throughout the pandemic and continue to do so. The pay claim was submitted nearly a year ago with very little progress. There is no prospect of teachers pay award being settled in the near future.”
SSTA general secretary Seamus Searson said: “Cosla has said how much it values its teachers, but words are cheap whilst the lack of a real wage increase speaks volumes. Teachers need to consider whether Cosla is working on behalf its employees, or has it reached the stage where teachers would be better served negotiating directly with the Scottish government?”
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Discussions within the SNCT are ongoing and we will continue to play our part in that process. It is of course for local government as the employer to put forward a pay offer, and for teaching unions to consider and respond to that.
“We will continue to play our part, positively and constructively, in these ongoing discussions. We hope that a pay deal for teachers can be agreed soon.”
A Cosla spokesperson said: “We remain in constructive dialogue.”
*Update on Monday 15 November:
The EIS has calculated that the one-off extra payment in the rejected offer would result in around £90 net for a teacher at the top of the main-grade scale.
