The EIS has served formal notice of its intention to open a statutory ballot for industrial action over teacher workload.
The EIS has formally notified all 32 Scottish local authorities, as the employers of teachers, of its intention to open the ballot next month. The move comes ahead of the opening of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Conference in Aberdeen, and serves as a warning to the current Scottish Government administration.
Commenting on the serving of official notice, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “With the SNP Conference opening in Aberdeen this weekend, the issuing of these statutory ballot notices serves as a timely reminder to all conference delegates of their Manifesto pledge to tackle teacher workload that the SNP made ahead of the last Scottish Parliament election, in 2021.
"The promise made by the Scottish Government was based on a reduction of teachers’ maximum class contact time, to 21 hours per week. More than four years on from that promise being made to teachers, pupils and the wider electorate and, not only are we still waiting for the pledge to be delivered, we are still waiting for firm proposals on how it will be delivered to emerge from the Scottish Government and local authority employers."
Ms Bradley added, "We are now in the fifth year since the pledge was made – almost enough time for a whole cohort of young people to pass through secondary education – and the next Scottish election is approaching fast.
"With no tangible progress having been made on delivery of the commitment, we now believe it is necessary to remind the Scottish Government of the importance of honouring its promise to Scotland’s teachers, pupils and voters.
"Our statutory ballot, which will open next month, will provide teachers with another opportunity to demonstrate to both government and employers of the vital importance of tackling excessive teacher workload by delivering the commitment to reduce maximum class contact time to 21 hours per week in order to give teachers more time out of the classroom to prepare lessons."
The EIS statutory ballot will open on 12 November and close on 14 January. As a consequence of UK trade union laws, the statutory ballot will be a postal ballot only.
Background to the Workload Dispute
- Following several years of discussions at SNCT with no progress made on the implementation of the Scottish Government’s 2021 manifesto commitment to reduce weekly class contact time to 21 hours, an agreement was reached between the Scottish Government and COSLA, in December 2024, which included a commitment that both would work together ‘at pace’ to make meaningful progress on the commitment.
- Mindful of disappointment on previous commitments to make progress, the SNCT Teachers’ Panel set a deadline of Monday 3rd February 2025, for a tangible plan for implementation to be tabled at SNCT in relation to reducing class contact time. Despite assurances, from the Scottish Government that the deadline would be met, no such plan was tabled.
- The SNCT Teachers’ Panel declared a formal dispute on 7th February 2025. The formal dispute was lodged on two grounds:
- The lack of progress on the reduction of class contact time to 21 hours.
- The lack of agreement on the use of time within the contractual 35-hour working week.
- The second of the above is the basis of a long-standing red line of the SNCT Teachers’ Side: that the time resulting from a reduction in weekly class contact time to 21 hours is allocated, in full, to the ‘preparation and correction’ component of the contract, in order to make progress in addressing unsustainable, unhealthy and unfair levels of workload.
- Initially, discussions regarding the dispute took place through meetings of the SNCT Joint Chairs and were moved, by the request of the Teachers’ Side, to a distinct SNCT working group. The early meetings, both of SNCT Joint Chairs and the working group, failed to produce any progress, with COSLA and the Scottish Government progressing their own discussions through a separate working group that excluded the Teachers’ Side of the SNCT. The SG-COSLA promise to produce a report for the wider SNCT by June was not met.
EIS Consultative Ballot
- On 9th May 2025, EIS Council approved the opening of a consultative ballot in response to the lack of substantive progress at SNCT. The ballot was conducted between 6th June 2025 and 18th August 2025, with EIS members indicating strong support for action:
- Yes to Strike Action: 83%.
- Yes to Action Short of Strike: 92%.
- A full meeting of the SNCT was held on 20th August 2025, just ahead of the conclusion of the EIS consultative ballot, at which the Scottish Government tabled a proposed work plan to be taken forward in the SNCT class contact time working group, involving all three sides.
- The EIS Salaries Committee took the position that in order for such discussion to take place, a potential request to hold a statutory ballot would be paused.
- The EIS indicated publicly, and directly to both the Scottish and COSLA, that the meetings of the SNCT working group scheduled for 18th September and 30th September would act as a measure of their joint commitment to making the promised swift and meaningful progress.
EIS Efforts to Progress Negotiations
- In an effort to effect progress within negotiations towards agreement, the Teachers’ Side tabled a discussion paper at the SNCT working group meeting held on 18th September 2025.
- The Scottish Government and COSLA both responded positively to the tabled paper at the meeting, and agreed to give its content further consideration prior to the further meeting of the SNCT working group scheduled to take place on 30th September 2025.
- At the SNCT working group meeting on 30th September 2025, 12 days after it had been tabled, neither the Scottish Government nor COSLA were able or willing to respond formally to the previously tabled Teachers’ Side paper.
- In the case of COSLA, there was admission that the work required had simply not been undertaken, while Scottish Government officials were still awaiting a view from ministerial level. Furthermore, neither the Scottish Government nor COSLA were able to provide any timescales in which formal responses could be given.
EIS Salaries Committee decision & Subsequent Executive Committee decision
- The EIS Salaries Committee considered the lack of meaningful progress in negotiations at a special meeting on 3rd October 2025. At this meeting it was unanimously agreed to request a statutory ballot for industrial action in pursuit of an acceptable outcome to the SNCT dispute on reducing weekly class contact time to 21 hours. This request for a statutory ballot has now been unanimously agreed by the EIS Executive Committee.
