Teachers across Scotland are set to be balloted for strike action, citing “crippling” workloads and accusing the Scottish Government and local councils of “dithering” and “delaying” on commitments to reduce classroom hours.
The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) confirmed the move, highlighting that years have passed since the SNP’s manifesto pledge to cap teachers’ classroom time at a maximum of 21 hours per week.
Andrea Bradley, the EIS general secretary, condemned the “unfair, unhealthy and unsustainable levels of teacher workload” that she stated have been “plaguing teachers’ professional and personal lives for years”.
She added that while staff have “shown divine patience”, they are “continuing to toil under excessive workload burdens”.
The decision to proceed with a statutory industrial action ballot was unanimously approved by the EIS executive committee on Tuesday.
This marks a significant escalation in the ongoing dispute between the trade union, the Scottish Government, and Cosla, the local government body, over the unfulfilled 2021 SNP manifesto commitment.
The EIS formally declared a dispute on the issue in February, following the missed deadline for a “tangible plan” to implement the promised changes.
Ms Bradley said: “We are now in the fifth year since the current Scottish Government administration made a manifesto promise to address crippling teacher workload, after years of knowing about and acknowledging the seriousness of it, by reducing teachers’ maximum class contact time to 21 hours per week.
“During this time, teachers have shown divine patience, while continuing to toil under excessive workload burdens, and thousands more teachers are without permanent contracts and out of work or underemployed as the Scottish Government and Cosla have continually dithered, delayed and disagreed with one another over delivery of this essential commitment.
“The unanimous agreement by the EIS executive committee confirms that teachers’ patience on this matter is now more than spent and we will now move ahead with a statutory ballot for industrial action.”
Ms Bradley said the EIS had warned councils and ministers “they must keep their promise to move ahead, at pace, on a concrete programme of delivery for this commitment”.
She added: “It is simply unacceptable that the Scottish Government has failed to deliver.
“The repeated obfuscation from Cosla, representing teachers’ employers, has only made the situation worse.
“Meanwhile, teachers in Scotland continue to work the equivalent of a day-and-a-half extra each week, unpaid, as they try to get everything done that needs to be done.
“It is these joint failings on the part of both the Scottish Government and Cosla that have led to this decision.”
She insisted the ballot could be avoided by the Government and councils “keeping their commitments to reduce teachers’ workload by reducing class contact time”.
Ms Bradley urged them to “at long last agree a way forward in the delivery of the promises made on workload reduction”.
The Scottish Government and Cosla have been contacted for comment.
