Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has urged teachers to accept the Scottish government’s enhanced pay offer, describing it as “a good pay rise” and “the best pay rise for any public-sector worker anywhere in the UK”.
As Scottish teaching unions gear up for what could be the first national teacher-led strike action since the 1980s, at First Minister’s Questions today Ms Sturgeon said a dispute over pay was not “in the interests of young people across the country”. The new deal being proposed by the government meant that, in April this year, teachers’ salaries will increase by 9 per cent compared to what a teacher will get in their pay packet this month”. There would also be a further 3 per cent increase in April 2020, she said.
At the weekend, Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS - which has been campaigning for a 10 per cent pay rise for all teachers - agreed to hold a ballot on strike action, saying it had been negotiating for a year on a pay claim that was due to be settled last April.
Threat of teacher strikes
Formal notice of the planned ballot was due to be issued to local authorities this week, with ballot papers to be issued later this month.
However, Ms Sturgeon said this afternoon that negotiations were ongoing and that the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers - which comprises unions and national and local government representatives - was due to meet on 28 January, “when we hope that all parties can reach agreement on an offer that can be put to the teacher unions’ membership, hopefully for ratification”.
She said: “The proposal would mean that all teachers would receive a minimum 9 per cent increase between January 2018 and April 2019, with a further 3 per cent in April 2020. That is a clear indication of our commitment to recruit and retain teachers, and it is the best offer in the public sector anywhere in the United Kingdom.”
She added that any additional budget allocation to fund a negotiated agreement would be met by the Scottish government and would not come from the education budget.
Yesterday, college lecturers went out on strike in Scotland in a bid to secure “a fair cost-of-living pay rise”.
