Ballots on strike action in Glasgow over teacher cuts have failed to reach turnout requirements for the action to go ahead.
Both the EIS, Scotland’s largest teaching union, and primary school leaders’ body AHDS failed to meet the required 50 per cent threshold for turnout, meaning that industrial action will not go ahead at this time.
Tes Scotland exclusively revealed in February that Glasgow City Council was planning to cut 450 teaching posts over three years. When schools returned in August, over 170 posts had gone.
However, while a consultative ballot of over 5,000 EIS members in Glasgow achieved a 60 per cent turnout with 90 per cent voting for strike action, the statutory ballot, which closed on Tuesday, failed to reach the 50 per cent threshold.
Tes Scotland understands the EIS ballot achieved a turnout of just over 45 per cent, with the proportion prepared to strike over 80 per cent. The EIS will decide in the coming days if another ballot should go ahead.
AHDS general secretary Greg Dempster also confirmed that, while its ballot had failed to hit the required turnout, “those who did vote were strongly in favour of industrial action”.
He said it remained the view of AHDS that the cuts would have “a long-term negative impact on education in the city and should be reversed”.
The EIS said its result “would have given a lawful mandate for strike action under previous trade union legislation”, but that it had not met the requirements of “the recently ousted Conservative government’s anti-trade union law”.
‘Cuts already underway in Glasgow’
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “The cuts that are already underway in Glasgow are massively damaging to the educational experiences of children and young people and to the working lives of teachers, and are set to grow worse in the years ahead with effectively 10 per cent fewer teachers than there should be working in Glasgow city by 2027.”
She added: “EIS Glasgow is currently considering the ballot outcome and potential next steps in the fight to protect teaching jobs and education provision for young people.”
Meanwhile, another council with highly controversial plans for education cuts has today been weighing up what to do. It emerged earlier this year that Falkirk Council was seeking to reduce pupils’ learning hours in all its schools, but it has now delayed a decision until December.
In September, the EIS wrote to first minister John Swinney urging him to intervene over local authority education cuts, amid concerns over the Falkirk and Glasgow plans.
For the latest in Scottish education delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for Tes’ The Week in Scotland newsletter
