New teacher pay offer amounts to 'tiny baby steps', says union leader

The leader of Scotland's biggest teachers' union has described the latest pay offer as "tiny baby steps" in the right direction.

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said union officials would discuss the details of the proposal later.

The government said it had found £156m to fund a two-year deal.

The new offer involves a 6% pay rise in the current year and a further 5.5% in the new financial year, which starts in April.

It is hoped the proposal, made by local government body Cosla, will lead to strikes being called off - but Ms Bradley said no decision had been made on whether to suspend the action.

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The EIS, which represents the bulk of unionised teachers, has been demanding a 10% rise this year.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Ms Bradley said the EIS and other teaching unions had been "somewhat frustrated at the digging in of heels of the Scottish government and Cosla around teacher pay.

"I think what has been put through the media and subsequently put onto the table for negotiation later this week amounts to a tiny baby step in the right direction rather than a significant improvement.

"Our salaries committee will be considering the terms of this offer later on this morning."

She added that it was "very very unfortunate" that the BBC appeared to know the details of the offer before they were put "properly through the negotiating channels".

The next national strike is due to be held on 28 February and 1 March.

Before then, the EIS is also planning to target action in a number of areas, including the Glasgow constituency of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the Dunfermline constituency of Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.

Ms Somerville told Good Morning Scotland that if the offer was accepted, many teachers would receive an overall increase of more than £5,000 over two years.

She said: "When we are in a dispute like this every side of the dispute has to compromise and we have had to make difficult decisions in government to try and find more money on this.

"That does come with consequences because the money is already allocated.

"But I hope that this does show our real determination to find a way through this, to find a compromise to put together what I think is a very exceptionally good and fair deal."

She said it was an 11.5% increase in April, and an "accumulative increase" of more than 30% since 2018.

The Scottish government has previously said it had no more money and would have to raid other budgets to pay for an increased offer.

Their £156m for teachers is part of a pot of about £300m which would also enable councils to offer their other staff a 5.5% pay rise in 2023/24.

The previous pay offer, made in November, was worth between 5% and 6.85% for most staff.