Thousands more teachers may be in line for a boost to their pay packets after the SNP minority government and the Greens struck a deal to ensure that stage one of the Scottish budget was approved tonight.
Finance secretary Derek Mackay has said he will extend the Scottish government’s commitments on public sector pay to ensure all employees earning up to £36,500 receive a minimum 3 per cent pay increase, so that three-quarters of public sector workers see an inflationary pay rise.
The Greens said this amounted to 73,000 more public sector workers, including teachers, with the pay policy now covering 75 per cent of workers rather than 51 per cent.
Green analysts told Tes Scotland that around 30,000 additional full-time equivalent teachers would be covered by the deal, or more if assuming that some teachers will be part-time.
However, there is a distinct process for agreeing teachers’ pay, and any change to their salaries would have to be ratified by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), which comprises the Scottish government, local authorities and teaching unions.
Opposition parties have attacked the SNP-Green budget deal, which passed the stage one vote by 69 to 56. This week, Scottish Labour put forward alternative budget proposals, with higher taxes and spending, which it claimed could raise hundreds of millions of pounds more for public services.
Mr Mackay set out his draft budget proposals late last year, including a £157 million cut in the budget for councils, and had since then been negotiating with opposition parties to find support. The new deal with the Greens, which the government says will allow the budget to be passed at all stages, sees an extra £170 million going to local authorities.
Last Friday, Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the EIS, called for a 10 per cent pay rise for all teachers as it a new campaign, “Value Education - Value Teachers”. Earlier in the month, it had warned that the first teacher-led strikes in the country since the 1980s could take place this year unless pay is “substantially improved”.
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.
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