Why Voting in this Ballot is Your Best Chance to Reduce Workload

In 2019, the EIS launched the Time to Tackle Workload Campaign, which had two key themes: 

COVID interrupted this campaign, but we were successful in getting the Scottish Government to adopt the “Empowered School System” that included “empowered teachers”. 

We were also successful in getting all the political parties to promise extra teachers in their 2021 Scottish Parliament Election manifestos, to spread the workload. The Scottish Greens and SNP promised extra teachers to reduce weekly class contact time for all teachers.

Both SNP and Scottish Greens MSPs were elected on these promises: weekly class contact reduction was part of the joint programme of their coalition government, and it remains within the current programme of the SNP government.

You’d think that implementing a promise made by the majority of elected MSPs would be straightforward, but in reality, the Scottish Government has chosen to put its considerable resources elsewhere and has avoided doing what it takes to deliver its promise to teachers, parents and voters.

That’s why the EIS statutory ballot is so important. We need to demonstrate members’ strength of feeling on workload by voting YES x2.  

Implementing a weekly class contact reduction to 21 hours at the SNCT, as a first step, is easy to do and it:

• Helps all teachers by spreading the workload burden 
• Allows us to make an agreement that ensures that Principal teachers, Depute Headteachers & Headteachers are not left with any extra work, such as using school assemblies to cover teachers’ work
• Allows us to ensure that ASN teachers can focus on working with young people with ASN needs and not be utilised for class cover
• Helps pupils because their teachers have more time to prepare for and respond to their learning
• Helps teachers with precarious contracts to obtain permanent contracts
• Is straightforward to deliver as we have done before, going from 25 to 22.5 hours’ maximum class contact time
• Easy to enforce via an SNCT contractual variation. 

We are looking for workload improvements for all teachers, including PTs, Depute Headteachers and Headteachers. We will ensure that the 90 minutes released is covered by additional teachers and not facilitated by school leaders using school assemblies more strategically as proposed by the Scottish Government last week.

If the change to contact time and more staff being employed leads job sizing reviews, then we will help to facilitate these.

We are still working to improve teacher agency, to empower teachers to make their own decisions regarding their teaching, to push back against standardised assessment implemented according to the Scottish Government’s timetable.

We are still pushing back against the workload associated with HMIe inspections and council-run mini-inspections.

An Industrial Action mandate from our ballot will allow us to implement Action Short of Strike (ASOS) action, which is intentionally configured to include refusal to administer national or local authority standardised assessments, non-cooperation with HMIe inspections and non-cooperation with local authority quality assurance processes, as part of our workload dispute. 

Workload is, sadly, not going to be sorted out in a single step, but a weekly class contact reduction of 90 minutes is a large step towards fairer, healthier and more sustainable workloads.

Unfortunately, despite class contact reduction already being promised, it will not be given by the Scottish Government without a fight to hold the Scottish Government to its word.

Vote Yes and Yes in the two-question statutory postal ballot and post your ballot paper as soon as possible.

Add your vote and encourage your colleagues to vote too!