Members of a secondary school teaching union have voted to go on strike to push for an improved pay offer.
A ballot of Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) members saw 90 percent vote for strike action on a turnout of 62 percent. It comes after Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, set a date of November 24 for its own strike.
A number of local authorities have already given notice to parents that schools will close for the EIS strike. SSTA officials said they are considering a walk-out for the week beginning December 5, as trade union laws mean at least 14 days' notice must be provided.
SSTA general secretary Seamus Searson said: “The result is very good, we’re pleased with the return that we got. It just shows the frustration of teachers.
“We’ve been trying to get this resolved since the beginning of the year. We haven’t had a proper conversation about pay since August.”
The SSTA began balloting members on strike action last month after turning down a 5% pay rise offer from council umbrella body Cosla. It had described the proposal as "insulting".
Speaking last week, Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said a teachers’ strike was not inevitable. She said: “As a Scottish Government, we’re absolutely determined to see what we can do, to see if there’s additional funding that we can provide to Cosla to allow Cosla as the employers to provide an enhanced pay offer.
“I very much hope teachers would be able to look at that offer, take it to its members and we could not have industrial action. The industrial action is not inevitable and I would absolutely urge, as we’ve done with all the trade union colleagues today, to keep up that constructive dialogue and make sure we’re doing everything we can to avoid that.”
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