We need to talk, SNP tell teachers

NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday pledged to relaunch talks with teachers about a ‘fair’ pay rise – but insisted their demand for a 10 per cent increase was ‘not affordable’.

Scotland’s schools are facing the threat of the first strike since the 1980s after a near-unanimous rejection of a pay deal negotiated by Education Secretary John Swinney and council umbrella body COSLA.

Earlier this week, the Educational Institute of Scotland voted 98 per cent against the deal and the Scotto tish Secondary Teachers’ Association 97 per cent – on turnouts of 74 per cent and 73 per cent respectively.

Mr Swinney has said that while teachers are being offered a 3 per cent pay rise across the board, restructuring of the main pay grade scale and annual progression meant most would receive an increase of between 5 per cent and 11 per cent.

At First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The Scottish Government and COSLA will go back to the table and we will continue to seek a reasonable agreement in good faith.’

She said she wants teachers to get a ‘good pay rise that recognises the vital and difficult job that they do’.

But she added: ‘Pay awards need be affordable because if they are not affordable, they cannot be delivered. I would love to give teachers and all public sector workers a 10 per cent pay rise, but that is simply not affordable in a single year.’

Miss Sturgeon was pressed on education by Labour and the Greens.

Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: ‘The last time that Scotland’s teachers were angry enough to go on strike, Margaret Thatcher was still the Prime Minister; I was still a school teacher; the First Minister was a school pupil; and some of the 98 per cent of current teachers who have just rejected the pay offer were not even born.

‘That is how badly this Government has handled teachers’ pay.’

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie said: ‘We all want to avoid the prospect of strike action, which would be the last resort for the teaching unions.

‘However, if we accept that the offer that was made is dead and gone and has been rejected, the choice is now simple.

‘Will the Scottish Government force the teaching profession – who are already angry people – into industrial action that we should all try to avoid? Or will it work towards a realistic offer and give local councils the resources they need to meet it? The choice is that simple. What is it going to be?’

Miss Sturgeon said: ‘We want to see a realistic offer being made and accepted.’

‘We will go back to the table’