A second teaching union has announced plans to join in with further national strike dates announced for next month.
Members of the NASUWT will stage industrial action on February 28 and March 1, joining colleagues from the EIS who have already announced plans for the same dates as the profession’s pay dispute continues.
Schools all over Lanarkshire and across Scotland were closed at the start of term when teachers from both unions plus two others staged demonstrations – and further action is also planned for later in the spring.
It comes after all schools in North Lanarkshire were closed last Thursday on day four of the rolling EIS strike action in different council areas across the country; with all South Lanarkshire schools then taking their turn to close next Friday, February 3.
There will then be the 48-hour beginning next month - the third nationwide action to be staged by each union since November – followed by a rolling programme of three EIS strike days in each council area between March 13 and April 21, with specific Lanarkshire dates still to be confirmed.
NASUWT officials are calling for a pay rise of 12 per cent for 2022-2023, saying the current offer of five per cent “amounts to a real-terms pay cut” and that their further strike dates “are a result of the continuing failure of ministers and [local government body] Cosla to come forward with an improved offer”.
Stephen Kerr, the Central Scotland MSP, raised the issue of the pay dispute and industrial action at First Minister’s Questions this week, asking Nicola Sturgeon if she would “step in and end the strike”.
The Conservative member said: “The strike means chaos for hundreds and thousands of parents and carers and pupils”; with Ms Sturgeon responding that the government is working “closely with unions and local government partners to reach a deal that is fair and affordable”.
She said: “That dialogue has been constructive. There still remains a gap between the union asks and what is affordable within our finite resources, and therefore we look for further compromise.”
EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley responded by saying: “The [education] secretary said recently that she would ‘leave no stone unturned’ in her effort to reach a fair pay agreement with Scotland’s teachers – sadly [this has not] yet led to an improved offer.
“Our members are not prepared to accept the sub-inflation five per cent that has repeatedly been offered; strike action will continue until that improved offer is on the table for our members.”
NASUWT national official Mike Corbett said: “A substantially improved pay offer which is fully funded by the Scottish Government must be tabled without delay; there is a window of opportunity to avert further strike action, but the ball is very much in the court of ministers and employers.”
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