Teachers set to call all-out strike over a 10pc pay rise

TEACHERS are threatening to strike over demands for an inflation-busting 10 per cent pay hike.

Mass walkouts could be staged after pupils return from the summer break – causing chaos in schools.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) said a ballot for industrial action would be considered unless ministers intervened to fund the rise.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) said 90 per cent of members had backed industrial action in a 2017 survey if this year’s pay offer fell below demands.

Some 64 per cent of SSTA members were in favour of an all-out strike, but a formal ballot would be needed to approve the move.

Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘The demand for a 10 per cent pay increase is not financially sustainable. It would place a substantial bill on both local and central government – one that is unaffordable.’

Salaries are set by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), which includes teachers’ representatives as well as councils and the Scottish Government.

But teachers on the SNCT yesterday confirmed they had rejected the offer of a 2 or 3 per cent pay rise – in line with the Scottish Government’s public sector pay policy.

Ministers are proposing a 3 per cent increase for public sector workers earning up to £36,500, with higher paid staff getting up to 2 per cent.

The EIS wants a 10 per cent rise for all teachers. A spokesman said: ‘While a fair negotiated settlement remains our preferred route, other options – up to and including a ballot for industrial action – remain available in the event a negotiated agreement cannot be reached via the SNCT.’

SSTA general secretary Seamus Searson said that

‘Not financially sustainable’

without further concessions on pay, strike or industrial action was likely following the summer break.

A spokesman for the teachers on the SNCT said the offer ‘fails to deliver on the need to value education and value teachers by delivering appropriate salaries for Scotland’s teaching professionals’.

As a result, he said, teachers’ negotiators ‘have rejected this offer of 2 per cent or 3 per cent for Scotland’s teachers, as it falls far short of the 10 per cent pay claim that was submitted’.

The spokesman also ‘rejected any notion of a differentiated deal that would award lower pay increases to teachers at some grades compared to colleagues at other grades’.

He said: ‘There is a growing crisis in teacher recruitment and retention across Scotland and declining rates of pay is one of the key factors contributing to this problem.

‘Scotland wants and expects the best teaching professionals but, increasingly, is unwilling to pay appropriate professional salaries.

‘Pay for teachers is continuing to decline in comparison to other graduate professions and to salaries in other European countries. This simply must be rectified.’

With further talks due to take place, he said there was now a ‘clear expectation’ that the Scottish Government would have to ‘play an active role in reaching a settlement’.

Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘Scotland’s schools are heading for industrial action unless [Education Secretary] John Swinney wakes up and takes action on teachers’ pay and workload – and he has been given plenty of warning.

‘Under the SNP, teachers have seen their pay fall in real terms year on year.

‘Class sizes have grown to some of the biggest in the developed world.

‘That is why we have a teacher recruitment crisis – and until Mr Swinney addresses it, everything else is window-dressing.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Industrial action in our schools is not in the interest of anyone, least of all pupils and parents.

‘Teachers’ pay is a matter for the SNCT and negotiations for 2018-19 are under way.

‘The Scottish Government will play its part in those discussions and we urge everyone round the table to take a constructive approach.’