Teaching union tells politicians it is time to increase pay after delays
largest teaching union is demanding a pay offer is made to the country’s teachers following delays.
A pay settlement for 202223 was expected to be applied from April, but the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) says local authority group Cosla is yet to present an opening offer to unions. Last month, the pay settlement for 2021-22 was delivered – more than a year late.
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said it is now time for “politicians to pay up” in order to ensure teachers do not experience “a real-terms pay cut” amid the cost-of-living crisis.
Mr Flanagan said: “The EIS is demanding that an offer is made without further delay.
“Cosla has a record of making late pay offers, leading to long or stalled pay negotiations. The EIS has pushed Cosla and the Scottish Government to begin SNCT [Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers] negotiations in a timelier manner this year.
“The EIS has submitted a pay claim calling for a 10 per cent salary increase for all of Scotland’s teachers this year. We are clear that this pay claim is essential to ensure that the value of teachers’ pay does not decline in the face of rising inflation whilst the cost-ofscotland’s living crisis is rampaging on.”
It comes as the chief of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association told delegates at the union’s annual congress that secondary teachers “must be at the heart” of the Scottish Government’s education reforms.
Addressed the union’s 77th annual congress in Crieff yesterday, Catherine Nicol acknowledged the hardships faced by secondary school teachers during the coronavirus pandemic – during which annual examinations were cancelled and whole classes and year groups were sent home due to infection or low staff numbers.
A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development into Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence prompted the decision for the c ountry’s exams board, the Scottish Qualifications Authority, to be scrapped.