Created on: 06 Jun 2025
The General Secretary of the EIS, has laid down a challenge to the Scottish Government and COSLA to deliver commitments to tackle teacher workload by reducing class contact time, as she launched a consultative ballot for strike action during her address to the EIS AGM in Aviemore.
Following a wide-ranging annual address, which looked back at the many issues that have faced Scottish education over the past year, the General Secretary also noted the lack of progress in pay negotiations for Scotland’s teachers, following the rejection of an opening, 3%, offer from employers earlier this year.
“A below-RPI inflation settlement would take us backwards, not in the forwards direction that we need to go if we’re to build on the modest ground recovered through last year’s pay award that COSLA noted in the letter of offer was ‘a first step towards restoration in the value of teachers’ pay’,” said Ms Bradley.
“We had a meeting with employers this week at which no offer was made with time ticking away towards the end of term. Colleagues, this shouldn’t be hard: the claim’s for 6, 3 was rejected and RPI’s at 4.5%. P4 could work out what a possible settlement figure could be…”
At the conclusion of her speech, the General Secretary pressed the button to formally launch the EIS consultative ballot on workload, as a result of the failure by the Scottish Government and COSLA to deliver the commitment to reduce teachers’ class contact time by 1.5 hours per week.
“There are swathes of evidence showing the extent to which teachers are subsiding the system with free work. Patience isn’t infinite and neither is the amount of time that teachers can give to their work away from their own families - their own children, their own partners, their own parents and their own friends.”
“We’ve compromised on timescales, we’ve said we can compromise on phased implementation but the use of the time for preparation and correction is an absolute red line. We’ve said that from Day One.”
“We have come to the point where we must escalate this dispute. We must now ask our members to stand up and have their votes counted on workload in this indicative ballot.”