Created on: 22 Dec 2025
The EIS is calling on the Scottish Government and local authority group COSLA to make a New Year’s resolution to resolve the ongoing dispute over teacher workload.
The EIS is currently running a statutory ballot for industrial action over the failure of the Scottish Government and COSLA in delivering promises made five years ago to tackle teacher workload by employing 3,500 additional teachers and reducing teachers’ maximum class contact time.
Commenting, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “As we move into 2026, it is now five years since the pledge was made, in the 2021 SNP manifesto, to tackle excessive teacher workload by employing 3,500 more teachers in Scotland’s schools and by reducing teachers’ maximum class contact time to 21 hours per week. Very concerningly, neither of these commitments have been met.”
Ms Bradley continued, “Five years on, and we actually have fewer teachers in our schools than there were when the pledge was made. So, rather than gain the additional teachers that our schools need, we have actually lost teachers – piling ever more pressure onto the existing and severely overburdened staff.”
Ms Bradley added, “On the commitment to reduce teachers’ class contact time, teachers have waited five years for the Scottish Government to bring a firm, coherent proposal on implementation to the table. When a proposal finally did arrive, just a few weeks ago, it was two sides of A4 containing a series of vague statements and poorly developed half-ideas. Scotland’s teachers need and deserve far better.”
Ms Bradley concluded, “With the dawning of the New Year, the Scottish Government and their local authority partners COSLA must resolve to take urgent action and finally deliver their commitments to Scottish education, its teachers and its learners. With the next Scottish Parliament election now just a few months away, it is long overdue for them to deliver the promises that were made to the electorate before the last election. The promises made must become promises delivered.”
Given the lack of political will across national and local government so far to do what it will take to resolve the workload dispute, the EIS statutory workload ballot, a postal ballot to conform with UK trade union law, is underway and closes on the 14th of January. The EIS is asking its members to vote on both possible strike action and on Action Short of Strike (ASOS). The EIS is recommending to members that they should vote Yes-Yes in favour of both strikes and ASOS, and urges all members to use their vote in this important ballot before the closing date on the 14th of January.
Find further information on the ballot.