Teachers offered new pay deal in bid to halt strike action

The EIS will hold a salaries committee and executive committee meeting to discuss a response to the offer.

By Sheanne Mulholland

February 15 2023, 12:05pm

Teachers have been offered a new pay deal in the hope of ending national strike action. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson.

Teachers have been offered a new pay deal in the hope of halting strike action.

The Scottish Government and Cosla have offered a 6% rise for all teaching staff earning up to £80,000 for the year of 2022-23, plus a 5.5% for the following financial year.

They say that this deal would see most teachers’ pay go up by 11.5% in April, if it is accepted, and would bring the starting salary for a fully qualified teacher to £37,719 after probation.

The Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) – the country’s largest teaching union – had been asking for a 10% pay rise but education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville previously said that was “unaffordable”.

The EIS will now hold a salaries committee and executive committee meeting to discuss a response to the offer.

Teachers strikes have been taking place across Scotland since November last year, including at Morgan Academy, Dundee. Image: Mhairi Edwards/DC Thomson.

Committee members will also discuss any potential implications for the ongoing programme of strike action in schools which is currently scheduled to continue next week.

‘Disrespectful’ negotiations

The revised offer emerged from a private meeting between the Scottish Government and Cosla on Tuesday, outwith the agreed negotiating forum, the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT).

The EIS said they did not receive information of the offer until after 9pm that same day, commenting on their social media that this was “disrespectful of the appropriate negotiating process through the SNCT.”

Andrea Bradley, general secretary for the EIS, said: “It will now be for the EIS salaries committee to discuss the terms of that offer and to adopt a position in relation to it.

“In doing so, the salaries committee will consider the revisions to the offer in the context of the current cost of living crisis, the continuing extremely high level of inflation which currently sits at almost 13.5% on the RPI scale, and the sharp real-terms decline in the value of teacher pay since 2008.”

Funded by the tax-payer

The latest pay offer would be funded with an extra £156 million of taxpayers’ money, Ms Somerville said, on top of £50 million already provided to local authorities in support of an enhanced pay offer for teachers.

She added: “The offer is being made at a time of extraordinary financial pressure on the Scottish Government budget.

“Difficult decisions will have to be made to free up the required resources.

“This reflects our commitment to reach a fair agreement and avoid further disruption to children and young people’s education.”

Teachers on strike outside Shirley-Anne Somerville’s office in Dunfermline, Fife, in November last year.

Ms Somerville has written to the unions urging that members are given time to consider the offer and asking for strike action to be suspended while that happens.

If the union does not suspend the strikes, industrial action will see walk outs continue next week.

National walkouts had been planned for February 28 and March 1 alongside 20 days of rolling strikes from March 13 to April 12.

Additional targeted strikes in Ms Somerville’s constituency of Dunfermline, Fife, as well as the Perthshire North area of Deputy First Minister John Swinney are also planned.