An eight-year-old could easily calculate the level of pay offer that would be acceptable to teachers, EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley told her union’s annual general meeting in Aviemore today.
Pay negotiations stalled in Scotland after the teachers’ side of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) - which comprises local and national government and teaching unions - unanimously rejected an offer of 3 per cent for 2025-26 on 17 March. The SNCT teachers’ side had put in a 6 per cent pay claim on 14 February.
Today, Ms Bradley stressed that “there’s room for negotiation on the figure that we finally settle at”, but that the initial 3 per cent offer from local authorities body Cosla “was way off the mark”.
‘This shouldn’t be hard’
She told EIS AGM delegates today that, at an SNCT meeting on Wednesday, “no offer was made, with time ticking away towards the end of term”, but that the Retail Price Index (RPI) should be kept firmly in mind during negotiations.
“Colleagues, this shouldn’t be hard: the claim’s for 6 per cent; 3 per cent was rejected and RPI’s at 4.5 per cent - P4 could work out what a possible settlement figure could be…,” she said.
Primary 4 pupils are typically aged around eight.
Ms Bradley also said: “A below-RPI inflation settlement would take us backwards, not in the forwards direction that we need to go if we’re to build on the modest ground recovered through last year’s pay award that Cosla noted in the letter of offer was ‘a first step towards restoration in the value of teachers’ pay’.”
In May, the EIS told the Scottish government and councils to act quickly on pay, warning that the scheduled settlement date of 1 August was “approaching at pace”.
Also in May, the Westminster Department for Education announced that teachers in England would receive a pay rise of 4 per cent in 2025-26, applied evenly across the pay scale, although the UK government failed to commit to fully funding the rise.
Des Morris, EIS salaries convener, told the EIS AGM yesterday that the union had expressed its “dismay” that no offer was tabled at the most recent pay negotiation meeting, held on Wednesday.
He said council leaders were due to meet in mid-June, and that council employers had insisted on a meeting with unions within 24 hours.
“We want credible offers to be tabled this side - not the other side - of the summer,” he said.
‘Route map’ on contact time ‘weeks away’
During her speech today, Ms Bradley formally opened a consultative industrial action ballot over teacher workload.
On the promised 90-minute reduction in weekly class-contact time, Mr Morris said yesterday that, in February, education secretary Jenny Gilruth had promised “a clear route map to implementation” would be presented to the SNCT no later than the end of June.
A special meeting of the SNCT would be held on 25 June, he told EIS delegates.
“That meeting is happening, and we expect that route map will be presented then.”
Speaking at the AGM yesterday, Ms Gilruth said she accepted that the government should have delivered on reduced class-contact time by now. “It’s not going as quickly as it should have - I acknowledge that,” she said.
Ms Gilruth said it was “absolutely critical”, and that teachers needed time to engage with reform and respond to the growing needs of pupils.
She added that “scoping work” was under way, and that she would receive a report by the end of June.
The EIS AGM concludes tomorrow.
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