Completely Inadequate Pay Offer Rejected - EIS Calls For Rapid & Vastly Improved Settlement

19th May 2022

The EIS yesterday rejected a pay offer of 2% for Scotland's teachers and called for the Employers' Side to come back quickly with a significantly improved offer.

The offer of 2% for all teachers was tabled by local authority group COSLA and was unanimously rejected by the Teachers' Side at a meeting of SNCT Extended Joint Chairs.

Commenting, Des Morris, EIS Salaries Convener and Chair of the Teachers' Side of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), said: "More than three months after the teachers’ pay claim for 2022-2023 was submitted, the Employers’ Side has finally come back with a completely inadequate pay offer which has now been summarily rejected by the Teachers’ Side. With inflation running at 9%, COSLA is effectively offering Scotland’s teachers a massive pay cut at a time when the cost of living is soaring. This is completely unacceptable, and the EIS expects COSLA to come back with a significantly improved offer before the next SNCT meeting on 21 June."

Mr Morris added, "Scotland’s teachers deserve a fair pay increase, and they deserve it now. In previous negotiations, the employers have adopted delaying tactics by responding to pay claims at a glacial pace. Our members are simply not prepared to accept that any more. This pay increase should have been applied at the start of April but we have only just received their opening, totally inadequate, offer. The EIS is seeking settlement before the summer, but the employers must come back with a far better offer. The EIS Council has already agreed that we will move towards a ballot for industrial action should a fair pay settlement not be achieved. The clock is ticking; COSLA must move more quickly, and far more positively, if industrial action is to be avoided."

Teachers’ pay in Scotland is negotiated via the tri-partite Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), involving teacher unions, local authorities (COSLA) and the Scottish Government. The EIS remains committed to negotiating a fair pay settlement through the SNCT and urges all other parties to re-commit to reaching agreement as soon as possible.