A local authority’s decision to email 130 teachers late on Friday afternoon is a sign of “endemic” job insecurity across Scotland, the country’s largest teaching union has said.
The EIS union issued a statement this afternoon after hearing that 80 primary teachers and 50 secondary teachers had received emails from North Lanarkshire Council late on Friday, informing them that they would not be offered temporary or fixed-term contracts from August.
The union said it had since received emails from numerous “very distressed members who face the prospect of unemployment post-summer as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite”.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “The issuing of these notifications by North Lanarkshire Council, with no prior notice whatsoever, late on a Friday and within days of the summer holidays, has caused serious upset amongst the teachers affected.
“Instead of being able to start their well-earned summer break on a high, they are deeply anxious and worried about how they are going to cover the costs of food and housing as prices and mortgage rates and rents continue to soar.
“After years of study and training to become teachers, when class sizes are full to bursting and when there’s insufficient support for children and young people with additional support needs, it is quite scandalous that highly qualified professionals face such casualisation and precarity.”
Teachers ‘lacking job security’
Ms Bradley added: “While this particular case involves North Lanarkshire Council’s poor decision-making, precarity and lack of job security is endemic across Scotland as a result of serious underfunding of our education system, first and foremost by the Scottish government - but local authorities could be doing much more than they are, too.
“There are hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers all over Scotland who are unable to progress in their lives because of lack of certainty that they will have a job from one week to the next.”
Ms Bradley said that “the Scottish government and local authorities need to stop playing politics with people’s lives”.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “The Teacher Induction Scheme is funded by the Scottish government and provides a one-year probationary placement to allow teachers to meet the standard for full registration. The Scottish government has never provided a guarantee of future employment with a particular local authority; it has always been the responsibility of local councils to recruit and employ teachers, based on local needs and circumstances.
“Notwithstanding, the Scottish government is providing councils with an additional £145.5 million in this year’s budget to protect increased teacher numbers. Where this is not being delivered by a local authority, we will withhold or recoup funding given for this purpose. We are working with local authorities to monitor progress. This £145.5 million provides assurance of funding for councils and removes this as a barrier to employing staff on permanent contracts.”
A North Lanarkshire Council spokesperson said: “It has always been clear that, while the council was able to offer newly qualified teachers employment for this current year, these contracts were temporary and would expire at the end of the year. Similarly, where enough vacancies do not exist, probationer teachers have always been placed on the supply list.
“Funding made available to the council by the Scottish government for teacher recruitment has fallen substantially. In the last two years, there has been a £1.8million reduction in funding due to a reduction in pupil numbers. In addition, the council’s share of Scottish Government Strategic Equity Funding - the majority of which has been used to recruit additional teachers - has fallen by £2 million for 2023-24.”
The North Lanarkshire Council spokesperson added: “Against that backdrop, headteachers did not have vacancies available for around 130 teachers across primary and secondary schools. All the staff concerned will be included on the supply teacher register and their availability will be circulated across the school estate so that headteachers can match them to opportunities that arise during the summer recess and during the next session.”
