Members of the EIS teaching union have strongly backed a 4.27 per cent pay offer for teachers in Scotland.

The union announced this afternoon that members had voted “overwhelmingly” for the pay offer, which applies across all salary grades for the year 2024-2025.

The EIS opened an online ballot last Wednesday; voting concluded at noon today. Some 95 per cent of members voted in favour of accepting the offer, with 5 per cent voting against it (turnout was 65 per cent).

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Des Morris, convener of the EIS salaries committee, said that after “this very clear mandate from our members”, the union will take a “position to accept the offer” into tomorrow’s Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers meetings.

‘First step towards restoring real-terms pay’

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “The offer, which comes after a long period of negotiation, is above both the consumer prices index and retail prices index measures of inflation, is undifferentiated across all pay grades, and marks an important first step on the road towards restoring the real-terms pay of Scotland’s teachers to pre-austerity levels.”

She added that it was “achieved without the need to declare a dispute or engage in any form of industrial action” and “will provide some welcome pay stability for our members over the coming year”.

The EIS, Scotland’s biggest teaching union, said that attention would remain on “other pressing matters facing teachers”, including:

• Falling numbers of teachers, “most markedly” present in Glasgow.
• A lack of permanent posts for many newer teachers.
• “Crippling levels of workload...imposed on teachers in schools right across the country”.

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