EIS Recommends Acceptance of New 4.27% Pay Offer to Scotland's Teachers

The EIS has decided to recommend acceptance of a new, improved pay offer of 4.27% to Scotland’s teachers. 

The new offer, received yesterday from local authority employers, is for a one-year deal covering the period August 2024 – July 2025 (inclusive). The EIS, which represents 80% of Scotland’s teachers, has indicated to its members that a consultative ballot will open tomorrow with a recommendation to accept.

The EIS will also communicate its position on the offer at a meeting of the Teachers' Panel of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) tomorrow.

Commenting, 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. 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."

Ms Bradley added, "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."