A new pay offer of 4.27 per cent has been made to Scottish teaching unions.
The offer will apply to all salaries covered by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT).
The teachers’ panel of the SNCT had said that if no further offer was made by noon today, a formal dispute would be declared.
Crucial meetings to discuss pay offer this week
Late this afternoon, a spokesperson for Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the EIS, told Tes Scotland: “This morning, [local authorities’ body] Cosla tabled a revised pay offer of an undifferentiated 4.27 per cent on all salary points.
“Accordingly, the EIS salaries committee will meet tomorrow morning to consider this offer before a meeting of the SNCT teachers’ panel on Wednesday of this week.”
The EIS spokesperson added: “A full update to our members will be sent following the meeting of the salaries committee tomorrow.”
The 4.27 per cent rise, if accepted, would be backdated to 1 August and cover the 2024-25 pay year, to the end of July 2025.
Cosla resources spokesperson Katie Hagmann said the new offer was “significantly improved” and “above inflation”.
She added that it was “at the absolute limit of affordability in the extremely challenging financial context, fully utilising all the funding local authorities have at their disposal and incorporating additional funding from the Scottish government”.
Ms Hagmann said the offer “does not propose any changes to terms and conditions” and that it “reflects the high value leaders place on Scotland’s teachers”.
In August, the SNCT teachers’ panel called on the Scottish government to be “undertaking all work necessary to table a credible pay offer for Scottish teachers without delay”.
Scottish teaching unions put in a pay claim for 6.5 per cent in January. In June, they unanimously rejected an offer that entailed 2 per cent from August 2024 and a further 1 per cent in May 2025.
In England, the Department for Education announced near the end of July that teachers and leaders would receive a 5.5 per cent pay rise from September 2024. In other recent developments, the Scottish government offered NHS staff a 5.5 per cent pay rise for 2024-25, while it recently provided extra funding to help Cosla offer a pay increase of at least 3.6 per cent to local authority workers.
In March 2023, Scottish teachers secured a 14.6 per cent pay rise over 28 months. This followed the first national strike action over pay by teachers in Scotland since the 1980s.
New ballot over Glasgow cuts
Meanwhile, the EIS today opened a statutory industrial action ballot over Glasgow City Council’s plans to cut 450 teaching posts from Glasgow schools over three years.
EIS members in Glasgow will be urged to use their vote in the ballot to back a programme of industrial action, up to and including strike action.
Tomorrow, finance secretary Shona Robison is expected to confirm big cuts to public services in Scotland, and a day later first minister John Swinney will set out the new programme for government.
A Scottish government spokesperson said that it “values the hard work of our teachers, which is why we have made an additional £29 million available to fund the new pay offer during a time of significant strain on public finances following the UK chancellor’s July statement.
“The offer will ensure that Scottish classroom teachers on the main-grade scale continue to be the best paid in the UK.”
The spokesperson added: “Scottish government officials continue to engage with UK counterparts to seek clarity on future UK government funding.”
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