'Teachers are already considering going on strike and rising inflation will only make the situation worse'
The prospect of teachers supporting industrial action was discussed at Holyrood today when a Green MSP questioned the Scottish Government’s lack of action on improving teacher salaries.
Ross Greer MSP questioned the education secretary about the freeze on teacher salaries in the wake of the EIS union voting to launch a campaign that could include strike action in response to real terms cuts in salaries over the last decade.
In response, Education Secretary John Swinney acknowledged that it was “difficult to support” the public sector pay freeze.
West of Scotland MSP, Ross Greer said:
“Teachers’ pay has been hammered for almost a decade. The public sector pay freeze may have been understandable at first to avoid huge numbers of redundancies, but the Scottish Government now has more than enough power to raise the money and end the freeze. With inflation at a four-year high, the situation for teachers and other public servants is getting worse. This cannot be sustained.
“Teachers are already considering going on strike and rising inflation will only make the situation worse. I’m pleased that John Swinney accepts that this is an important issue, however the Scottish Government needs to tell us how much loss to teachers’ salaries it is willing to tolerate before acting.”