Created on: 27 May 2025 | Last modified: 22 Dec 2025
Following the successful Consultative Ballot that the EIS ran over the summer which saw, 92% of members who voted, voting in favour of Acton Short of Strike (ASOS) and 83% of members who voted, voting in favour of strike action, the Scottish Government and COSLA refused to make meaningful progress to resolve the workload dispute by implementing a 1.5 weekly class contact reduction with the time put into teachers’ preparation time.
In October, the Executive Committee agreed to authorise a statutory ballot in pursuit of the workload dispute. The ballot opened on November 12th.
All eligible members will have received their ballot paper by now; it has a small blue triangle on the bottom right hand side of the ballot paper.
If you haven’t received yours, and you think you are eligible to vote in this statutory ballot, please contact ballot@eis.org.uk to arrange a new paper to be sent to you as soon as possible.
The statutory ballot closes on 14th January 2026, and as this is a postal vote it’s vital that papers are posted promptly to avoid delays with the Christmas post.
Fundamental to this dispute is the unwillingness from COSLA and the Scottish Government, to meaningfully engage with the SNCT Teachers’ Side to implement the 1.5 hours freed up from class contact reduction be allocated for teachers’ weekly “preparation and correction” time, despite the significant body of evidence pointing to the fact that teachers are spending hours and hours of their own time at evenings, weekends and even over holiday periods on ‘preparation and correction’ activities..
It is now almost five years since the manifesto commitment was made by the SNP ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. This was a commitment made following sustained campaigning from the EIS on workload.
Over the past four years, EIS negotiators, through the SNCT Teachers’ Panel, have worked tirelessly in their attempts to push both COSLA and Scottish Government to make progress on the reduction in class contact time.
These efforts have been consistently met with delay and obfuscation, as well as a lack of willingness on the other two sides of the SNCT to ensure that the full reduction of time from teaching is properly re-allocated to address workload - that it is given to teachers for preparation and marking.
Throughout four years of protracted negotiations at the SNCT, the EIS has maintained the position that the full reduction in class contact time must be used to increase weekly “preparation and correction” time by 1.5 hours, as a step forward in reducing what are unsustainable levels of workload.
The SNCT Handbook sets out the split of time within the contractual 35 hour working week for teachers.
Currently, teachers have a maximum of 22.5 hours class contact time, with a maximum of a third of that time then being used for what is defined as “preparation and correction”.
The remaining five hours each week are afforded to “collegiate” whole school activities, that are agreed collectively through Working Time Agreements.
Data obtained by the EIS has shown that teachers in Scotland are spending multiple hours each week, unpaid and outwith their contractual hours, engaging in the tasks that it should be possible to undertake in “preparation and correction” time: tasks related to the planning and preparation of learning, teaching and assessment in the classroom.
Given this significant driver of unsustainable workload, and the fact that the majority of teachers in Scotland are habitually undertaking hours and hours of preparation and correction activities in their own time, to the detriment of their health and wellbeing, the EIS is clear that any reduction in class contact time must be used in full to increase “preparation and correction” time.
To allocate the time any other way will simply make the workload crisis worse.
This position has been adopted by all unions represented on the SNCT Teachers’ Panel. The unwillingness of the Scottish Government and COSLA to agree to use of time to reduce teacher workload forms the major part of the current formal SNCT dispute.
An agreement was reached between the Scottish Government and COSLA in December 2024, which included a commitment that both would work together to make meaningful progress towards reducing class contact time.
At the same time, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills made a public statement in which she was clear that she wished to see progress made “at pace” on the issue.
In response to these public commitments and statements, the SNCT Teachers’ Panel resolved to give COSLA and Scottish Government one further chance to deliver progress.
Taking account of previous disappointments on the issue, the Teachers’ Panel set a deadline, which was clearly communicated to COSLA and Scottish Government, of 12 noon on Monday 3rd February 2025.
If the deadline was not met, the Teachers’ Panel agreed that a formal dispute would be lodged at the SNCT.
Despite Scottish Government assurances that the deadline would be met, no proposal for class contact time reduction was tabled on Monday 3rd February 2025.
Following a further meeting of the SNCT Teachers’ Panel on 7th February 2025 to discuss the missed deadline, a formal dispute was lodged at the SNCT on two grounds:
The SNCT Teachers’ Panel also sought a swift meeting of the SNCT Joint Chairs, the SNCT space in which a way of resolving the dispute could be agreed.
Meetings of the SNCT Joint Chairs have failed to deliver any progress towards a resolution of the dispute. Instead, Teachers’ Side negotiators were informed of a joint Scottish Government and COSLA working group on reducing class contact time being established.
Significant concern was expressed regarding the lack of representation from teaching trade unions in the work of this group.
Following months of no progress, the EIS Salaries Committee met on 8th May and determined that the EIS had been left with no other option than to proceed with a consultative ballot for industrial action in the pursuit of an acceptable resolution to the SNCT dispute on reducing class contact time as a step towards workload reduction.
The consultative ballot, for both Action Short of Strike (ASOS) and strike action, opened on 6th June 2025 and closed on 28th August 2025 with 92% of members voting for ASOS and 83% voting in favour of strike action.
Since then, with no meaningful progress through the SNCT the EIS moved to a Statutory Ballot which opened on the 12th November 2025 and closes on the 14th January 2026.
This workload dispute is the best way we can begin to address every teacher’s workload by reducing weekly class contact time and increasing ‘preparation & correction’ time.
The higher the turnout in this statutory postal ballot then the more likely COSLA and the Scottish Government will act without the need to implement industrial action.
We urge all members to vote Yes to Strike Action and Yes to ASOS Action.
In doing so, the strongest possible message can be sent, to both COSLA and the Scottish Government, that agreement on implementing the reduction in class contact time to 21 hours must be reached, and that they must commit to materially addressing workload by ensuring that the full 1.5 hours is allocated as an increase in teachers’ “preparation and correction” time.
As signalled through various EIS communications, the Scottish Government deliberately circumvented the long-established and constitutionally agreed SNCT negotiation channels with the publication of their “proposals” on Thursday 20th November.
Most importantly, the proposals do not satisfy what the SNP pledged in its manifesto and seem to be designed to divert attention away from the government and local authorities’ non-delivery of what was promised.
The SNP Manifesto promised to:
“Invest a further £1 billion over the next parliament to close the school attainment gap and recruit 3500 additional teachers and classroom assistants, allowing teachers more time out of the classroom to prepare lessons and improve their skills.”
“We will build up the resilience of our education system, giving teachers more time out of the classroom to prepare for lessons, undertake professional development and tackle the challenges of closing the attainment gap.”
None of this has come to pass.
This led to a public rebuke being issued by the Teachers’ Panel of the SNCT.
It is time for EIS members to raise their voices on workload and demonstrate to the Scottish Government and COSLA how important it is for their past promises on workload to be kept.
This is our best opportunity to make tangible progress in reducing workload.
In standing up for yourselves and for one another, and for healthier work-life balance, you will be standing up for quality education for our young people and for the thousands of teachers who can’t get permanent work.
The delivery of the commitment on class contact time of 21 hours maximum requires more teachers employed on permanent contracts.
Vote YES, YES before 14th January 2026.