TEACHERS in Scotland are looking increasingly likely to go on strike for the first time since Margaret Thatcher was in power after rejecting a pay offer from the Scottish Government and councils.

Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) union, warned industrial action was “very likely” after a headline 3% pay rise, with bigger increases for staff on lower grades, was rejected by union members. They want a 10% rise which they say is to restore the value of salaries after a decade of public-sector pay caps.

Asked about the prospect of strike action, Searson told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme yesterday: “Unless the government is willing to come to the table and make a reasonable offer, I think that is very likely. Teachers have suffered a 24% pay cut in real terms over the last 10 years. This is just a step forward to try to restore teachers to where they should be.”

Education Secretary John Swinney and councils say the offer is the best and most affordable in the current economic climate. In addition to the 3% rise, the deal funds a restructuring of the pay scale which means most teachers would receive an increase of between 5% and 11%.

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Searson, above, described the offer as “divisive “. He said: “We are all teachers, we’re all working together. Why should there be a division between one grade and another? The employers and the government walked away from the negotiating table in October. That is why we had to go down the road of having a ballot – because they said there was no further room for negotiation.”

The country’s biggest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland, said 98% of its members who voted rejected the offer, with a turnout of 74%. In the SSTA ballot, 97% rejected the deal, on a 73% turnout. EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said the “near unanimous” rejection of the pay offer was “a landmark result”. He added: “It is one of the strongest rejections of an offer in EIS history, and one that is indicative of the current mood of Scotland’s teachers, increasingly agitated on pay but angry also at excessive workload, mainstreaming on the cheap, and austerity driven cuts to resources.”

A third teaching union, the NASUWT, said a survey of more than 1000 of its members suggested more than half were willing to take industrial action. The unions said they hoped to make progress through negotiation, but the EIS warned it could ballot for industrial action in the New Year if an improved offer was not made by Christmas.

Searson added: “Teachers don’t want to take strike action – they want to get on with their day job and teach children. This is a distraction and we need to get past it, get teachers back into schools, and recruit and retain the teachers we have.”

Gail Macgregor, for council group Cosla, said: “The trade unions’ claim for a 10% increase in one year cannot be met within the resources we currently have available.”

Swinney said: “What disappoints me about this is the fact that it was such a strong offer, with teachers on the main pay grade scale receiving between 5% and 11%. But we will of course engage in further discussion with the teaching trade unions about these issues with an appetite to get to a resolution.”

The ballot results come a month after thousands of teachers marched in Glasgow in support of a “fair deal” that would “value teachers”.

Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: “The last time teachers went on strike I was a teacher, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister and many of those who cast their ballots last week were not even born. That’s how badly the SNP have mishandled teachers’ pay. No-one wants to see industrial action, John Swinney needs to come back with a fair deal for teachers. Education was supposed to be the SNP’s top priority – instead it is becoming its biggest crisis.”