The country’s biggest teaching union has today announced two more national strike days in the dispute over teacher pay in Scotland.
The EIS union said that no new pay offer was made at a meeting of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) Extended Joint Chairs this afternoon.
EIS members were already due to take strike action on Thursday 24 November in schools across Scotland, and the union will now call them out on two more days in January.
EIS members in all schools will be taking strike action on 24 November. Now, on Tuesday 10 January, the EIS - which has been campaigning for a 10 per cent pay offer - will call all its primary, special schools (primary and primary-secondary schools) and early years teacher members out on strike.
Only ‘improved pay offer’ will stop teacher strike
On Wednesday 11 January, all EIS members in secondary and secondary special schools, and all associated professionals, will be called to take another day of strike action.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “All EIS members in all of Scotland’s schools will be called upon to take strike action next week unless a fair pay offer is made in time. Following this, the EIS has allowed for a period of further negotiation up until the Christmas break, giving yet another opportunity for an agreement to be reached.
“Should no acceptable offer be received from employers by this time, our members will be called to take further strike action on two days in early January. The ball is very much in the court of [local authorities’ body] Cosla and the Scottish government - only an improved and acceptable offer can prevent strike action and an escalation to further action in this dispute.”
Ms Bradley added: “It is extremely disappointing that today’s meeting of the Extended Joint Chairs of the SNCT did not result in any new offer from Cosla and the Scottish government. Instead, this meeting - requested at short notice by the Scottish government - seems to have been called simply to make it appear as though talks are progressing.”
She added: ”In fact, this meeting simply went around the houses in areas that have been covered many times before, with still no improvement to the 5 per cent offer that Scotland’s teachers overwhelming rejected in a ballot some three months ago.”
A Cosla spokesperson said: “Scottish local government values its entire workforce, of which teachers are a key part.
“Making an offer that is affordable enables councils to protect the whole of education services and ultimately improve outcomes for children and young people.”
The spokesperson added: “Along with Scottish government, we are working closely and at pace to ensure a revised offer can be brought forward. However, there are extremely challenging financial decisions that must be made and the consequences must be understood. We will remain in active discussions with our trade union partners.”
