The latest teacher pay offer has been rejected with strikes set to continue.
A special meeting of the EIS Salaries Committee, held online today, unanimously rejected the latest revised pay offer from the Scottish Government and Cosla.
The Scottish Government and Cosla have offered a 6% rise for all teaching staff earning up to £80,000 for the year of 2022-23, plus a 5.5% for the following financial year.
They say that this deal would see most teachers’ pay go up by 11.5% in April, and would bring the starting salary for a fully qualified teacher to £37,719 after probation.
Teacher pay offer only a ‘marginal improvement’
But in a statement this afternoon, the EIS said the deal “offers only a marginal improvement on previously rejected offers”.
And a result, the EIS has rejected it and will continue with its current programme of strike action.
Andrea Bradley, EIS general secretary, said: “This is another inadequate offer to Scotland’s teachers, which was unanimously rejected by the EIS Salaries Committee earlier today.
“The 6% value of the offer for 2022-23 is insufficient, with CPI inflation currently sitting today at 10.5%.
“The 6% offer for this year is only 1% less of a pay cut than that previously offered, twice, by the Scottish Government and Cosla.
“Teachers have already lost more than 1% of their salaries through being forced into strike action so, essentially, teachers already more than paid for this revised offer themselves.
“This is just yet more smoke and mirrors from the Scottish Government and Cosla in attempting to make this offer appear more generous than it actually is.”
She added: “As a result of the clear decision to reject this offer, taken by our salaries committee today, our executive committee has also unanimously agreed that the current programme of strike action will continue as scheduled.
“The EIS remains, as ever, willing and available to engage in further discussions with both the Scottish Government and COSLA, through the appropriate forum within the SNCT, to attempt to reach a resolution to this dispute.”
The EIS has emailed its members this afternoon, advising on the decisions to reject the offer and continue with strike action and the reasoning behind those decisions.
Teacher strikes to continue
National walkouts are planned for February 28 and March 1 alongside 20 days of rolling strikes from March 13 to April 12.
Additional targeted strikes are also set to take place in Ms Somerville’s constituency of Dunfermline, Fife, as well as the Perthshire North area represented by Deputy First Minister John Swinney.
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