Pay restoration for teachers - the aim of getting salaries to a level that counteracts inflation and other factors affecting the cost of living - “must continue this year”, according to Scotland’s largest teaching union.
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley has highlighted that currently the Retail Price Index, a measure of consumer inflation in the UK, is sitting at 4.5 per cent.
Last week the Department for Education announced that teachers in England will receive a pay rise of 4 per cent in 2025-26, applied evenly across the pay scale - although the UK government has failed to commit to fully funding the rise.
In Scotland, a pay settlement has yet to be reached and the EIS is urging the Scottish government and councils to act quickly, warning that the settlement date of 1 August is “approaching at pace”.
Pay negotiations stalled in Scotland after the teachers’ side of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) 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.
‘Act quickly’ on teacher pay offer
Ms Bradley urged the Scottish government and councils to “act quickly to ensure a fair and acceptable pay offer is put on the table”.
“Following many years of pay decline, including pay freezes and artificial caps on pay settlements, the EIS will not recommend any offer to its members unless it is both above the rate of inflation - currently 4.5 per cent RPI - and undifferentiated for teachers at all grades and at all points of the pay scale,” she said.
“Last year’s pay settlement started the process of pay restoration for teachers, and this must continue this year.”
In May, Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, told his union’s annual conference in Stirling that a “restorative” deal was essential.
He said that any offer “must be inflation plus a restorative component to help teachers’ salaries return to the value in the past”.
Mr Searson also expressed his concern about “the failure to implement the promised reduction in teacher class-contact time”.
The EIS plans to ballot its members on industrial action over the government’s class-contact time promise after its annual general meeting in Aviemore in early June.
The next full meeting of the SNCT is scheduled for Wednesday 25 June.
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