Scotland's teachers vote 'overwhelmingly' in favour of strike action over workloads
EIS said the issue of workloads had taken too long to resolve
Scotland’s teachers have voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of strike action over workloads.
EIS, the country’s largest teaching union, said 85 per cent of those who voted backed the walkout.
Results showed 93 per cent of EIS members voted to back Industrial Action Short of Strike (ASOS), with 60 per cent of members voting in the postal ballot.
EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “This is an overwhelming ballot result, which delivers a very clear mandate for industrial action by teachers over excessive workload.
“ For five long years, teachers have been waiting for manifesto promises, made by the current Scottish Government prior to the last Holyrood election, on tackling teacher workload to come to fruition.
“With no real sign of delivery of those promises on reducing excessive teacher workload by recruiting 3,500 additional teachers while tackling teacher unemployment and zero-hours contracts, and reducing teachers’ maximum class contact time to 21 hours per week, teachers’ patience is clearly now at an end.”
Last year, the Scottish government announced proposals for teachers to be given a “flexible” four-day teaching week, with later start times and longer breaks also under consideration, to give teachers more time to prepare for lessons, support wider school improvement activities and undertake professional learning.
A 7.5 per cent pay rise for teachers has recently been agreed.
The EIS wants to cut the maximum time each teacher can spend in front of a class by 90 minutes a week. A ballot last year on the issue did not gain enough support to be legally binding.
Ms Bradley continued: “We are long past the time when these promises made to Scotland’s teachers should have been kept, honoured and delivered by the Scottish Government and local authority employers.
“They have previously jointly pledged to deliver these important commitments, but have since done little to ensure long-awaited improvements to the working conditions of teachers and the associated learning conditions of pupils.”
Ms Bradley said the union had offered the “requisite solutions” to the current workload dispute for agreement, without the need for industrial action.
She added: “We hope that this ballot result will finally propel the Scottish Government and COSLA into action and serious negotiation to bring the dispute to an end after more than a year.”
The EIS Executive Committee will meet on Thursday afternoon to consider the ballot reslt.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said: “While we respect union members' right to withdraw their labour, I am deeply disappointed that the EIS have taken this action while constructive discussions are already ongoing to reduce class contact time, improve maternity pay and deliver a four-day teaching week pilot.
“No one's interests will be served by industrial action in our schools. This will disrupt children and young people's learning - particularly in the crucial period leading up to exams - as well as parents, carers and school communities.
“I am fully committed to continuing discussions until we reach an agreed position on how to free up teachers’ time and improve wellbeing, and I urge the unions to continue working with us so we can avoid this unnecessary and damaging industrial action. Our focus must remain on what matters most: improving educational outcomes for our children.”
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