The latest teacher pay offer in Scotland has today (Friday 17 December) been rejected by teaching unions.

The EIS teaching union said the offer would represent “a painful real-terms pay cut”.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) “firmly rejected” the latest in a series of pay offers, which it described as “a further insult to the hardworking and committed teacher workforce in Scotland”.

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The EIS salaries committee unanimously rejected the revised pay offer for teachers from local authorities body Cosla and the Scottish government. It also agreed to ballot members on the pay offer in January.

EIS salaries convener Des Morris said: “The latest proposal from the employers offered only very scant improvement over previously rejected offers, and comes nowhere near to an appropriate acknowledgement of the value of Scotland’s teachers.”

The union’s general secretary, Larry Flanagan said: “When we submitted our pay claim last year, inflation was at 0.4 per cent. It now stands at over 5 per cent, and is projected to be at over 6 per cent in the new year.”

He added: “Scotland’s teachers have been lauded by government as key public sector workers throughout the pandemic, but that same government is now seeking to deliver a painful real-terms pay cut to the country’s teaching professionals.”

Paul Cochrane, SSTA salaries and conditions of service committee convener, said the offer was “an inadequate and insulting attempt at numerical smoke and mirrors with the same pot of money [held] for the last year”.

The SSTA underlined that the teachers’ side of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) - which also comprises local and national government - was initially lodged in December 2020. This led to a series of meetings and, in November, the rejection by teachers of  a 1.22 per cent increase from January 2021 that had been proposed by local authorities body Cosla.

This week, the SSTA, the employers’ side of SNCT issued a further pay offer with “the same overall cost envelope” but “reconfigured dates”:

• A 1 per cent increase at all SNCT pay points effective 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  (pro rata for part-time staff)
• A cap of £800 for those earning £80,000 and above.

Mr Cochrane said that “we are now asking ourselves more frequently, ‘What is Cosla’s role in the SNCT negotiating arena?’ We are now approaching a period of nearly five years where only one salary settlement has been agreed.”

He added: “With teachers being key workers who have delivered on equity, attainment and social justice during a worldwide pandemic, it is incredibly insensitive and demeaning for Cosla to continually offer the same deal in different wrapping.”

SSTA general secretary Seamus Searson said the pay offer was “a demand for more work for less pay from teachers [and] for teachers to accept a cut in living standards”.

Mr Searson added: “This latest derisory pay offer and the government’s plea to school staff to ‘break’ the national 10-day [Covid] isolation rule to ‘keep schools open at all costs’ - putting themselves and their families at further risk - shows a real lack of respect towards teachers and how much teachers are valued by their employers and the government”.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “While it is for local government as the employer to make any revised offer of pay, we are committed to supporting a fair pay offer for teachers through the SNCT.”

A Cosla spokesperson said: “The offer is a reconfiguration but does represent an improved offer. As with all negotiations we have to consider what is both sustainable and affordable. We remain in constructive negotiations but these cannot be conducted in public.”