Scotland’s secondary teachers’ union wants the way teacher pay is negotiated to be revamped and for talks to take place directly with the Scottish government, with councils removed from the process.
Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA), told Tes Scotland that the union wants to speak to “the organ grinder, not the monkey” when negotiating teachers’ pay.
He said local authorities’ body Cosla “strung [the teaching unions] along” during the 2020-21 pay negotiations, which ended in March when teachers reluctantly accepted a 2.23 per cent pay rise, along with a one-off payment of £100.
But he said that, with the Scottish government holding the purse strings, it would make sense for teacher representatives to negotiate directly with it and cut out the middleman.
A motion going before the SSTA annual congress, which takes place in Crieff this Friday and Saturday, says that Cosla has failed “to recognise the importance of school teachers in the education system” and to “enter into respectful negotiations with the [Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT)] teachers’ side throughout the pandemic and notably during the current teacher pay negotiations”.
It adds: “Congress calls on the Scottish government to remove Cosla from the SNCT (the tripartite negotiating body for teachers’ pay and conditions) and enter into direct negotiations with the teaching unions.”
Following the conclusion of the 2021 pay deal, Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, Scotland’s largest teaching union, accused the other sides of the SNCT of “dragging out negotiations endlessly”, saying that had “served only to build up anger and frustration amongst Scotland’s teachers”.
He said the offer fell short “of the pay increase that Scotland’s teaching professionals deserve” and that it had already submitted a claim for “a 10 per cent pay increase for Scotland’s teachers and associated professionals”.
However, according to the SSTA, there has been no response from Cosla to that claim.
Mr Searson said: “We need to freshen the whole thing up - basically we want to speak to the organ grinder, not the monkey. We have been frustrated over the past year by Cosla, who strung us along saying they were keen to talk to us when they could have been upfront about it and just offered what they eventually offered in January last year.
“They don’t send people to meetings who can make decisions - it’s hard to negotiate with someone who has not got the power to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Instead, they have to go back and consult with someone else or the government to see if they can get more money.
“This is about cutting out the middleman.”
Tes Scotland approached Cosla for a response, but a spokesperson said the organisation did not wish to comment.
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