Created on: 23 Oct 2025 | Last modified: 11 Dec 2025
Q1. Why are we being balloted?
Q2. Why is this a postal ballot?
Q4. When should I receive my ballot paper?
Q5. What should I do if I haven’t received my ballot paper?
Q6. What is the closing date of the ballot?
Q7. What is the deadline for posting my ballot paper?
Q8. I’ve misplaced my ballot paper; how do I request another copy?
Q10. If I vote yes will we have to take industrial action?
Q11. Who is eligible to vote in this ballot?
Q12. How do I check my membership details are up to date?
Q1. Why are we being balloted?
The EIS has long campaigned to reduce teachers' workload. Part of this campaign is our aim to move to a 20 hour teaching week with a class size maximum of 20 pupils. In 2021, the SNP was elected to government on a manifesto to reduce workload by reducing weekly class contact by 1.5 hours – from 22.5 hours to 21.0 hours per week.
We have been campaigning to realise the SNP’s manifesto promise since 2021, and we have failed to make meaningful progress at the SNCT and thus lodged a dispute. As a last resort, we are pursuing our SNCT dispute with industrial action in order to persuade the Scottish Government and COSLA to implement the promised reduction in weekly class contact.
Q2. Why is this a postal ballot?
This ballot facilitates members to take lawful industrial action, i.e. it is a statutory ballot. By law, it needs to be carried out by post and administered by an independent scrutineer.
No. The law states that statutory ballots must be postal ballots. The postal ballots are sent to the independent scrutineer company that administers the ballot.
Q4. When should I receive my ballot paper?
Ballot papers will be posted first class on the day that the ballot opens. You are likely to receive your ballot paper on the 15th or 16th of November.
Q5. What should I do if I haven’t received my ballot paper?
If you have not received a ballot paper at your home address by 20th November then you should email ballot@eis.org.uk with your name and membership number (if possible).
Q6. What is the closing date of the ballot?
The ballot opens on 12 November 2025 and closes on 14 January 2026.
Q7. What is the deadline for posting my ballot paper?
Your postal vote must be delivered by Royal Mail to the independent scrutineer by Wednesday, 14th January 2026. To facilitate this – your posted ballot paper needs to be posted in order to catch the post of Monday, 12th January.
Q8. I’ve misplaced my ballot paper; how do I request another copy?
If you cannot find your ballot paper, then you should email ballot@eis.org.uk with your name and membership number (if possible) to request another ballot paper.
You are being recommended by the EIS Executive to vote Yes for Action Short of Strike Action (ASOS) and Yes for Strike Action.
Q10. If I vote yes, will we have to take industrial action?
In order to obtain an industrial action mandate:
The EIS hopes that an industrial action mandate alone will be sufficient to exert sufficient pressure on COSLA and the Scottish Government o resolve the dispute and deliver the workload reductions from 1.5 hours less teaching per week.
However, if COSLA and the Scottish Government decide not to resolve the dispute, then industrial action would be inevitable.
Q11. Who is eligible to vote in this ballot?
All members who are teachers who are employed by a local authority i.e. probationers, main grade, chartered, lead, principal, depute headteachers and headteachers.
Q12. How do I check my membership details are up to date?
You can check your details by logging into MyEIS.
In UK law, strike action is defined as a form of industrial action, where employees collectively refuse to work in pursuit of a trade dispute with their employer. In other words, teachers do not attend work as part of a complete refusal to work. The dispute is the SNCT Workload dispute.
The strike action sought is “discontinuous” – i.e. there are days when members are on strike and other days when members are not on strike. EIS strike patterns are escalatory; e.g. 1 day a week, then 2 days a week, then 3 days a week.
Action Short of Strike (ASOS) encompasses any industrial action, aside from strike action, that does not involve a complete refusal to work. It may be described as a selective refusal to do specified aspects of your work.
ASOS, like all industrial action, may be considered to be a lawful breach of contract (e.g. refusing to engage in specified contractual duties).
The ASOS in this ballot is “continuous”; it is carried out from the start date to either the conclusion of the dispute or conclusion of the industrial action mandate (whichever is soonest).
Any Action Short of Strike (ASOS) arising in this dispute would consist of the following:
Non-compliance means that you do not carry out what you are asked or instructed to do. In the ballot paper, members are advised:
“EIS members would be advised to carry out ASOS and refuse to participate in any aspect of the HMIE inspection process and to simply show a film for an entire lesson if an HMIE Inspector insists upon attending a lesson or class.”
You would ask for a written instruction from the person making the request. You would refuse to carry out the written instruction and pass it to your Local Association Secretary for any further action if it is necessary. (A written request may be refused directly as it is not an instruction).
The EIS is clear that the Scottish Government and COSLA must resolve the SNCT workload dispute on reducing weekly class contact time to 21 hours, in a manner that begins to address unsustainable levels of teacher workload – by allocating the full 1.5 hours that would be saved from class contact time to increase weekly “preparation and correction” time to a minimum of 9 hours per week.
In over four years since the Scottish Government manifesto commitment to reduce class contact time to 21 hours, there has been no tangible progress (read the story so far). In this time, the levels of workload endured by Scottish teachers have remained unhealthy and unsustainable (read the member workload briefing).
While tens of thousands of teachers are working an excessive number of hours per week, in large part due to understaffing, thousands of other teachers are unable to secure permanent employment.
EIS members are therefore asked to indicate their willingness to stand up for a reduction in workload, in the interests of health, safety and wellbeing at work, security of employment for those who do not have it, and quality education for children and young people, by voting in this statutory ballot for strike action and ASOS.
Yes, it is possible for an employer to deduct pay from workers who are carrying out ASOS. There are, however, risks to employers as the law is far from clear in this area.
It is also possible to lodge a separate dispute and strike action to recover pay deducted for ASOS – the EIS FELA has successfully done this and recovered members’ wages.
Furthermore, if employers signal that pay will be deducted for ASOS it is likely to encourage the use of the strike element of the industrial action mandate.
Yes, and we will do so in this dispute. The two industrial actions will complement and amplify each other.
All members are urged to vote in the statutory (postal) ballot that is currently open.
The strongest possible turnout in this ballot gives the best possible opportunity to avoid a further escalation to industrial action. However, if the Scottish Government and COSLA do not act then members must be ready to undertake strike action.
A resounding YES vote, to both Strike Action and Action Short of Strike, will send the strongest possible message to COSLA and the Scottish Government that they must act to address workload, and that an agreement must be reached to end this dispute.
If you have further questions about the workload statutory ballot, please contact ballot@eis.org.uk