A majority of voting members of Scotland’s largest teaching union have decided to accept the latest offer in long-running pay discussions, although the prospect of industrial action has not disappeared.
EIS teaching union members voted to accept by 80 to 20 per cent, on a turnout of 45 per cent.
The EIS had advised that the current offer applying from April 2021 should be accepted - partly because the local elections in May will mean a long break in negotiations - so that the union could instead focus on campaigning for a 10 per cent rise for 2022-23.
When that stance emerged in early March, a number of EIS members raised their concerns that the current offer was particularly inadequate in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis.
Now, however, the EIS salaries committee will move to formalise acceptance of the offer through the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT). The union will then push employers for an early settlement of this year’s pay claim, which is due to be applied in three days, from 1 April.
The offer that led to the EIS ballot entailed:
- A 1.22 per cent increase at all SNCT pay points with effect from 1 April 2021.
- A further 1 per cent increase at all SNCT pay points effective from 1 January 2022.
- A one-off non-recurring payment of £100 to each SNCT member of staff (pro-rata for part time) for all SNCT members in post on 31 March 2022 and based on working hours at that time.
After the ballot result was announced just before 1pm today, EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan - who last week announced that he was stepping down from the role - said: “EIS members have voted, albeit reluctantly, to support the recommendation to settle last year’s, extremely delayed, pay offer from their employers.
“Even while voting to accept, however, both the EIS and its members regard this offer as falling short of the pay increase that Scotland’s teaching professionals deserve.”
Mr Flanagan added: “Whilst it was clear that [local authorities’ body] Cosla and the Scottish government were not going to improve their offer for last year, based on last year’s budgets and last year’s level of inflation, by voting to accept this backdated offer, EIS members have fired the starting gun on a major campaign for a fairer and far greater pay settlement for 2022-23 - with the EIS having already formulated, and submitted, a claim for a 10 per cent pay increase for Scotland’s teachers and associated professionals.”
Industrial action remains a possibility after today’s results, the EIS indicated.
Mr Flanagan said that the national EIS council had earlier in March “passed a motion indicating its lack of faith in the employers’ ability to negotiate fairly and committing the EIS to move to an early ballot for industrial action should this year’s pay claim...not be settled by the end of October”, and to “start building now” for its members to be “strike-ready” if necessary.
Mr Flanagan said that by “dragging out negotiations endlessly”, the other parties in the SNCT - in other words, local and national government - had “served only to build up anger and frustration amongst Scotland’s teachers”.
The EIS indicated that rising inflation and “soaring prices” - for food, clothing, fuel and power - were major factors in their response, as was the reality that Scotland’s teachers had “worked themselves into the ground over the past two years” of Covid.
Mr Flanagan said that teachers had “gone the extra mile, and they deserve to be appropriately remunerated for their efforts” and that the EIS would use “whatever means are necessary to achieve this goal”.
