TEACHERS could back a call for strike action this week as anger about pay and conditions increases.
A motion calling for strikes is among a number on potential industrial action to be debated by Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the EIS, at its AGM beginning on Thursday.
The union is calling on council body Cosla and the Scottish Government to address pay and conditions urgently.
It says public-sector pay restraint has hit hard, with teachers enduring 10 years of “real-terms erosion” of salaries.
General secretary Larry Flanagan said: “Disgracefully, Scottish teachers are still waiting for local authority employers Cosla to put together a negotiating team for a pay settlement that was due to be paid last April. That is unacceptable.
“Following a long and painful decade of real-terms pay erosion for teachers, which has led to a growing recruitment challenge, enhancing teachers’ pay is an issue Scotland’s local authorities and the Scottish Government must commit to addressing as a matter of urgency.
“Significantly, motions to AGM have set out a clear timetable for moving towards industrial action if pay talks stagnate.
“With inflation rising again, the mood of teachers is certainly hardening on the issue of pay.”
This year’s pay claim calls for an above-inflation pay increase that would mean average salaries rising by as much as 20 per cent. The AGM motion by the West Dunbartonshire branch states: “Failure to reach agreement would result in a ballot of members to begin a campaign of industrial action, including strike action, from the start of the academic year in 2018-19.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Teachers’ pay and conditions of service are matters for the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT).
“The SNCT negotiations are currently ongoing and the Scottish Government will play its part in that process.”
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