Teachers want 10%
Pay claim will be backed by social media bid to win support
TEACHERS are to demand a 10 per cent pay rise – and back up their claim with a social media appeal to the public.
The claim – to be submitted by the EIS, Scotland’s largest teaching union – is more than three times the public sector pay rise of three per cent proposed by the Scottish Government for 2018-19.
But the union insist it is vital for teachers to be properly rewarded and the increase would be a “first step” to that.
The EIS’s social media campaign will highlight 10 reasons for the rise, including a recruitment crisis.
General secretary Larry Flanagan said teachers’ pay has fallen by “at least 20 per cent in real terms” over the last decade. He added: “For the teachers who deliver the Government’s No1 priority – the education of our young people – to be so severely undervalued cannot continue.”
EIS president Nicola Fisher added: “For almost a decade, we have been subject to pay freezes, pay caps and real-terms cuts. This has demoralised the profession.”
The Scottish Government pointed out they were the first administration in the UK to lift the one per cent cap on public sector pay rises.
A spokeswoman said: “Teachers’ pay is a matter for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers and negotiations for 2018-19 will begin once the unions have formally lodged their pay claims.”