There is “increasing concern” over a “lack of progress in the 2024-25 pay round”, the teachers’ panel of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) has said.
In a statement late this afternoon, the panel said that despite submitting a pay claim in January 2024, four months had passed without an offer being tabled by local authorities’ body Cosla and “no firm indication has been given of when an offer will be forthcoming”.
The panel said that “a short window of opportunity now exists for a pay settlement to be agreed in time for the implementation date of 1 August 2024”.
‘Imperative’ to see a pay offer ‘without delay’
It added: “It is now imperative that a pay offer is tabled at the SNCT without any further delay, to allow for meaningful negotiation to take place.”
Last week, the general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, Seamus Searson, told Tes Scotland that it would be surprising if a deal on teacher pay was reached before Christmas.
On the same day, EIS teaching union general secretary Andrea Bradley said that “the whole gamut of possibilities” from strike action to industrial action short of striking was being considered by the union.
The teachers’ panel said today that it “retains a firm and unequivocal commitment to the tripartite arrangements of the SNCT and to the principle of sectoral collective bargaining between teaching unions, Cosla and the Scottish government”.
In submitting its pay claim in January, the panel had “made clear its wish to negotiate meaningfully in the spirit of such a commitment and has sought to do so in the intervening months despite delaying by the other partners”.
In the panel’s statement, issued by the EIS, it called on Cosla and the government to “undertake, as a priority, the work required to ensure that a meaningful pay offer is tabled so that the negotiations necessary to ensure that Scotland’s teachers receive an acceptable pay award by 1 August 2024 can be concluded”.
Local authorities ‘disappointed’ by ‘threat’ of strike
In response, a Cosla spokesperson said it was ”disappointed to note that our trade union colleagues have gone public with a threat of balloting for strike action, before all options have been explored, given the dire financial situation for Scotland’s councils”.
Cosla resources spokesperson Katie Hagmann said: “For the last two Thursdays, we believed we had positive meetings with our Scottish Joint Council Trade Union colleagues to discuss this year’s pay offer for the Scottish local government workforce.
“We had another useful meeting only yesterday, so it is disappointing that they have chosen to go public today, before all options have been explored.”
She added: “We are close to making an offer, based on the mandate given to me by council leaders. Another meeting is being scheduled as soon as possible and we are doing all that we can to get an offer on the table.
”It is important to reiterate that this is against the context of a flat cash settlement from Scottish government, which leaves very little room to manoeuvre without service reductions and job losses, which we want to avoid at all costs.”
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