Scotland’s largest teaching union is to ballot its members over a new pay offer designed to relieve the country’s supply teacher shortage.
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has received a new, final pay offer from local authority umbrella group COSLA. The offer improves conditions for supply teachers, reducing the number of days categorised as “short-term” from five to three.
Supply teachers earn £78 a day for their first five days, before the rate rises to £145 a day. The new offer will see supply teachers move on to the higher rate after three days.
The rates paid to supply teachers were slashed under a cost-cutting deal agreed in 2011 but this has left many schools struggling to find cover.
EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said improving the pay and conditions of supply teachers was a priority at the latest round of talks.
The measure is part of a wider pay deal for Scottish teachers which will see salaries rise by 1% this year and by a further 1% the following year.
The EIS, which represents 80% of the teaching profession, will ballot its members before responding to the deal from local authority employers.
Mr Flanagan said: “The EIS is committed to a member ballot on those discussions. A pay offer of 1% this year and 1% for next year may well be all that can be achieved through negotiation in the current climate.
“However, the EIS is clear that this will not reverse the real-term decline in teachers’ pay and at some point, action will need to be taken to ensure teaching remains an attractive profession for young graduates to join.”
Mr Flanagan added: “The EIS entered into pay discussions with the priority of making progress on the pay and conditions of short-term supply teachers.
“After much hard negotiation, a final offer has been received that represents a significant improvement on the short-term supply issue, without impacting on the 1% pay offer to all employees that was previously announced by COSLA.”
Another condition is that a working group meets to consider teacher supply.