Scotland’s biggest teaching union has called for a 10 per cent pay rise for all teachers.

The EIS has today launched a new pay campaign, “Value Education - Value Teachers”, after previously warning that the first teacher-led strikes in the country since the 1980s could take place this year unless pay is “substantially improved”.

General secretary Larry Flanagan said: “A good first step towards restoring teachers’ pay to an acceptable level would be the delivery of a 10 per cent pay increase for all teachers in 2018.”

He added that analysis by the union showed that teachers’ pay in Scotland had declined by at least 20 per cent in real terms (compared with the Retail Price Index) over the past decade, but, taking into account increases in pension contributions and national insurance, it represented a real-terms cut of almost 25 per cent in take-home pay.

The campaign will be driven by social media, using the hashtag #eis10for10, where the union is setting out 10 reasons why teachers deserve this level of pay rise in 2018-19. Just before Christmas, Scottish teachers secured a staggered 2 per cent pay rise for 2017-18, with 1 per cent backdated to April and a further 1 per cent rise this month, after talks over pay wrangled on for over six months. But many teachers have said this is not enough to prevent them from considering strike action.

EIS president Nicola Fisher, after the campaign was launched today in Edinburgh, said: “For far too long, Scotland’s teachers have been punished for a financial crisis which they did not create. Austerity and ideologically-driven attacks on the public sector from Westminster governments, coupled with financial decisions made here in Scotland, have caused our pay to decline dramatically.”

Teachers ‘demoralised’

Ms Fisher said that nearly a decade of pay freezes, pay caps and real-terms pay cuts had “demoralised the profession, with severe consequences for teacher recruitment and retention”. She added that the pay rise sought by the union would represent “a fair wage, which compares favourably to other professions and to teachers in other countries”.

Last year analysis by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that for a teacher with typical qualifications and 15 years’ experience, and accounting for inflation, salaries in Scotland were worth 6 per cent less in 2015 than in 2005 - and 12 per cent less in England - while on average they had risen in other countries.

A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “Teachers’ pay is a matter for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) and negotiations for 2018-19 will begin once the unions have formally lodged their pay claims. The Scottish government will play our part in those discussions.”

She added: “It should be noted this government was the first in the UK to commit to lift the 1 per cent public sector pay cap, and the teachers’ pay deal for 2017-18 reflects this commitment.

“That deal also commits members of the SNCT to undertaking a strategic review of pay and reward to ensure teaching remains an attractive career, and we will play our part in that process.”

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