Teachers pile on the misery for parents with 22 more strikes
TEACHERS have announced another 22 days of school-shutting strikes in an ongoing pay dispute.
Union bosses said the three weeks of action will be in addition to the 16-day programme of rolling strikes starting next week.
Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), said it had agreed the strike action yesterday, which will include two days of walkouts in all schools on February 28 and March 1, followed by a rolling programme of strikes for 20 days between March 13 and April 21.
The new dates will see local authorities hit by three consecutive days of walkouts as teachers demand double the pay rise they have been offered.
On the second day of strikes, all schools in a local authority will shut completely, bookended on either side by one-day strikes in primary and secondary schools.
Unions have demanded a 10 per cent pay increase but the Scottish Government has offered 5 per cent, including rises of up to 6.85 per cent for the lowest-paid staff.
Unions said the most recent deal in November was ‘dressed up as an improved offer’ but did not improve pay for the ‘vast majority of teachers’.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said the strike action was ‘a direct response to the inaction of the Scottish Government and Cosla [Convention of Scottish Local Authorities] on teacher pay’.
Members of all four unions representing teachers and headteachers – the EIS, the NASUWT, the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association and the Association of Headteachers and Deputes – walked out together for the first time this week.
EIS members have taken three days of strikes, one in November and two in January, while primary and secondary schools were closed on January 10 and January 11 after last-ditch talks with the Scottish Government failed.
Prelim exams were rescheduled after most secondary schools in Scotland shut.
Education Secretary ShirleyAnne Somerville said the EIS decision was ‘disappointing’. She added: ‘We remain absolutely committed to reaching an agreement on a pay deal that is fair and sustainable for all concerned.’
Scottish Conservative education spokesman Stephen Kerr said Miss Somerville ‘has again been found wanting after entering the latest talks with nothing fresh to offer the unions in an effort to end this dispute’.