Teachers in ‘cloud cuckoo land’ over 30pc pay demand

TEACHERS were accused of ‘living in cloud cuckoo land’ yesterday after demanding pay rises of up to 30 per cent – and less time in front of their pupils.

The plea for more cash comes only weeks after a damning international survey showed Scottish pupils are being outperformed by peers in former Soviet nations.

Unions also want a reduction in the amount of time staff spend at the chalkface – so if the plan were approved, they would be paid more for teaching less.

Councils facing a squeeze on spending are likely to resist the plea for a large salary rise at a time when many workers in the private sector have had pay freezes.

Last night, Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘The vast majority of parents will see this as a blatantly unreasonable request that would provide very great difficulties for councils. They would be unable to afford it and in the current economic climate it would be difficult to justify.’

Teachers are seeking ‘in the first instance to pursue a salary increase to bring Scottish teachers in line with average teachers’ salaries across [countries in] the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’.

The claim comes from the teachers’ side of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers, which includes teaching unions, local authority employers and Scottish Government representatives.

Unions led by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association say Scottish teachers’ wages are significantly lower than elsewhere in the world. The unions’ pay claim also states that ‘pay progression for teachers lags well behind the norm for other graduates in the economy’.

The present pay deal – which ends on March 31 – was a two-year offer with a rise of 1.5 per cent in the first year and 1 per cent in the second.

Unions also want ‘class contact time’ brought into line with other OECD countries – at primary level, the average is 776 hours of teaching time per year but the maximum for Scottish primary teachers is 855.

Scottish primary teachers’ pay starts at £21,800, reaching £34,800 at the top of the scale, compared with OECD averages of £25,000 and £41,300 respectively.

For Scottish teachers in ‘upper secondary’, the senior years of secondary school, the starting salary is £21,800 – but £27,500 across the OECD. At the top of the scale for experienced staff in upper secondary, salaries average £34,800 here compared with £45,300 for OECD countries – a 30 per cent gap.

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: ‘If the Scottish Government and local authority employers are serious about attracting the best qualified people into teaching, real-terms decline in teachers’ pay is an issue that must be tackled.

‘Cuts to staff numbers in recent years have led to a substantial increase in workload for Scotland’s teachers, at a time when their pay has been falling.

‘Action must be taken to restore the pay of all teachers, including supply teachers, to an acceptable level.’

The £2billion McCrone deal, brokered by former education minister Jack McConnell in 2001, handed teachers a 35-hour week and a 23 per cent salary increase.

But the architect of the agreement, Professor Gavin McCrone, admitted in 2011 that it had created ‘clock-watching’ staff.

He said he had never intended the 35-hour week to be a binding contract because it was ‘demeaning for a profession to be told how to spend their time’. Teachers claim the commitment to a 35-hour week is regularly breached amid growing staff shortages.

In December, damning new global education rankings showed that Scottish pupils are lagging behind their peers in former Soviet nations in reading, maths and science – exposing the failure of the SNP’s curriculum reforms.

Eben Wilson, director of liberal think-tank the Centre for Democratic Prosperity, said: ‘Teaching unions are living in cloud cuckoo land – this is simply not tenable when the councils that are paying teachers are short of money. It’s really time for the public sector to get real.’

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said it was ‘in the middle of pay negotiations’ and could not comment further.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Teachers’ pay and conditions of service are matters for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT).

‘SNCT negotiations are ongoing and the Scottish Government will play our part in that process.’

Comment – Page 18

‘Simply not tenable’