The EIS has opened a statutory ballot for industrial action over teacher workload. The statutory ballot, held by post to comply with UK trade union law, will run until the 14th of January.
The ballot is a consequence of the Scottish Government’s failure so far to deliver a manifesto commitment, made before the 2021 Holyrood election, to tackle excessive teacher workload by reducing teachers’ maximum class contact time to 21 hours per week.
The Scottish Government additionally pledged to employ 3,500 additional teachers to enable this workload reduction, but despite agreements with COSLA on behalf of local authorities, and additional government funding having been given to local authorities, the associated promises made by both bodies have yet to be honoured.
After almost five years of wrangling between the Scottish Government and COSLA, there is still not even a plan for implementation of the commitment to reduce teacher workload, meanwhile the most recent figures indicate that there are now 873 fewer teachers in Scotland than there were in 2021, and 1688 fewer teachers than there were in 2007, when the SNP first came to power.
Commenting on the opening of the ballot, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, "For almost five years, the EIS has attempted to engage constructively with the Scottish Government and local authorities, through COSLA, to ensure delivery of their commitments to address teacher workload - reducing maximum class contact time, and employing 3,500 additional teachers.
"This has been an extremely time-consuming, laborious and frustrating process which has delivered absolutely nothing concrete to make a positive difference to Scotland's teachers.
"Throughout this time, whilst political wrangling between national and local government has persisted, Scotland’s teachers have continued to struggle under the weight of their excessive workload burdens, with some of the largest class sizes and longest teaching hours commitments in the OECD nations.
"Ironically, thousands of qualified teachers who could be permanently employed to share the massive workload burden, are limping from one temporary contract to another, being pushed from pillar to post in order to find enough work to earn a living.
"Our patience and, more importantly, the patience of Scotland’s teachers is now at an end on this issue."
Ms Bradley added, "In opening this ballot, we are reminding the Scottish Government and COSLA that it is essential that they keep their promises to Scottish education, Scotland’s teachers and Scotland’s learners.
"It is simply not acceptable for national or local politicians to be elected on the promise of improving education, in this case by tackling teacher workload and employing more teachers, then failing to deliver upon those promises, particularly when issues around teacher workload and precarity of employment are so serious.
"This ballot is a chance for Scotland’s teachers to show both their employers and the Scottish Government their strength of feeling, and to compel them to work constructively together and act on teacher workload.
"I would urge all eligible EIS members to look out for their ballot paper arriving in the post, and to cast their vote in this hugely important ballot. The EIS Executive strongly recommends to members that they should vote Yes to Strike action and Yes to Action Short of Strike.
"We must send the type of strong and united message that is impossible for the politicians to ignore."
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. The ballot was subsequently authorised by the EIS Executive committee.
- The EIS statutory ballot opens on 12 November and close on 14 January. As a consequence of UK trade union laws, the statutory ballot is a postal ballot only.
