Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the EIS, has decided this afternoon to open a ballot of members immediately, on an “insulting” pay offer from local authority employers.
The ballot will ask members whether they are prepared to support industrial action, up to and including strike action, to pursue a better pay deal. The online ballot has now opened and it closes in two weeks, on Friday 16 September.
Later, it emerged that members of the NASUWT teaching union had also rejected the deal.
The executive committee of the EIS today unanimously voted to immediately open a consultative ballot on the latest pay offer to teachers, and on potential strike action in pursuit of an improved pay settlement.
The EIS is recommending that members vote to reject the current 5 per cent pay offer from local authority employers, and to vote in favour of potential strike action.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “We are urging all of our members to use their vote in this important ballot, to reject the insulting pay offer from employers, and to vote ‘yes’ to potential strike action in pursuit of an improved pay settlement.”
“Teachers are increasingly angry that their pay is not keeping pace with the soaring cost of living as inflation reaches unprecedented levels, and are impatient for the union to take action on their behalf.”
The EIS pointed to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showing that the retail price index (RPI) rate of inflation in August was 12.3 per cent, while the consumer price index (CPI) rate was 10.1 per cent. The union also highlighted huge rises in gas, electricity and food prices.
Ms Bradley said: “This is the context in which local authorities are offering a 5 per cent pay settlement - far below the rising cost of living and, effectively, a deep and painful real-terms pay cut for Scotland’s hardworking teachers, some of whom are already experiencing in-work poverty.”
She added: “The 10 per cent pay claim submitted by the EIS and other teaching unions, via the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), is extremely measured, thoroughly evidence based and unequivocally deserved.
“It is time for [local authorities’ body] Cosla and the Scottish government to stop playing political games, and to work constructively to deliver a fair pay settlement for Scotland’s teachers.
“EIS members can collectively increase the pressure on employers and government by using their vote in this important ballot, rejecting the totally inadequate pay offer, and delivering an overwhelming vote in favour of strike action.”
Shortly after the EIS ballot was announced this afternoon, the NASUWT teaching union said it would reject the 5 per cent pay offer for teachers tabled by Cosla, following a ”snapshot survey” of members in which 83 per cent said the pay award should be rejected as inadequate or unacceptable.
The decision to reject, confirmed today by the union’s national executive, will be formally conveyed to employers at a meeting of the SNCT next Tuesday.
NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach said that 5 per cent “falls way short of what teachers are demanding, following a decade of real-terms pay cuts and the current cost-of-living crisis”.
Dr Roach added: “Employers must come back to the table with a vastly improved offer. If they fail to do so we remain committed to balloting members this term for industrial action.”
NASUWT Scotland national official Mike Corbett said: “It’s time employers and ministers started to demonstrate that they value teachers for the vital and skilled work they do by giving them a pay award that will enable them to weather the cost-of-living crisis and begin to address the years of real-terms pay erosion they have experienced.”
Meanwhile, council worker strikes due to go ahead next week - which would have closed many schools - have been suspended after unions received a new pay offer from local authority leaders.
The three trade unions which took part in the industrial action - Unison, Unite and the GMB - agreed to suspend strikes in waste services and education.
Union members will now be consulted on the new deal.
It emerged this afternoon that Cosla leaders had agreed to table a revised pay offer that they hoped would avert school closures and bin strikes.
The local authority leaders had today met to discuss a new pay offer following lengthy negotiations with unions. That meeting took place after talks between first minister Nicola Sturgeon, unions and local authority bosses went on until late last night.
