Scotland's largest teaching union has recommended members accept a new pay offer.
Teaching unions put in a pay claim for a 6.5% rise in January, and unanimously rejected a 2% rise from August 2024 with a further 1% in May 2025.
A new offer was tabled by COSLA on Monday after teaching unions had set a noon deadline to avoid a formal dispute being declared.
The offer comprises a 4.27% rise backdated to 1 August and which covers the 2024-25 pay year, to the end of July 2025, and the EIS has recommended that its members accept.
EIS salaries convener Des Morris said: “A special meeting of the EIS Salaries Committee was held this morning, following receipt of the improved offer yesterday. Following discussion, the members of the Salaries Committee agreed unanimously to recommend acceptance of this offer to members.
Read More:
-
Glasgow teachers to vote on strikes over council plan to cut hundreds of posts
-
Teachers set deadline for government and councils in ongoing pay dispute
-
College lecturers vote in favour of new pay offer to end long-running dispute
"Accordingly, the EIS will now take this position into discussions with our sister trade unions at the SNCT Teachers’ Panel on Wednesday. We will also open a consultative ballot of our members tomorrow, with a recommendation that they should vote to accept the improved 4.27% pay offer from employers.”
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “The collective view of the Salaries Committee is that the current offer proposes a pay increase for teachers that is above both CPI and RPI rates of inflation and, crucially, marks a first step in the restoration of teachers’ pay to the equivalent of pre-austerity levels.
"The offer is also undifferentiated, offering a 4.27% pay increase for teachers at all grades and at all scale points. It is for all of these reasons that the EIS has agreed to recommend acceptance of the offer.
"EIS members should look out in their email inboxes on Wednesday for their digital ballot papers arriving. The EIS Salaries Committee is very clear that, while their view is that this is the best offer that can be achieved through negotiation and that members should vote to accept, it is ultimately for Scotland’s teachers to decide.
"I would urge every EIS member eligible to vote to use their vote in this ballot, and to make their views heard before the ballot closes next week.”
COSLA Resources Spokesperson, Councillor Katie Hagmann, said: "Following a meeting of council Leaders on Friday 30th August, COSLA has made a significantly improved formal pay offer for teaching staff to the SNCT Teachers' Panel.
"The offer is for a 4.27% increase at all pay points effective from 1st August 2024, and covering the SNCT pay year 2024-25 (August 2024 - July 2025).
"This offer is at the absolute limit of affordability in the extremely challenging financial context, fully utilising all the funding local authorities have at their disposal and incorporating additional funding from the Scottish Government.
"We hope that the Teachers' Panel will provide their respective members with the opportunity to consider this credible offer, which reflects the high value Leaders place on Scotland's teachers and their vital work educating and supporting our children and young people."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here