Scottish school strikes: Union to announce result of pay ballot

Scotland's largest teaching union is expected to announce later if members have voted for a pay offer to end long-running school strikes.

The EIS recommended for its members to accept the deal giving a 7% rise backdated to last April, a further 5% next month and 2% in January.

The union had suspended planned strikes when the offer was made last week.

Members of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association (SSTA) accepted the package on Thursday.

The EIS, SSTA and NASUWT unions have been in a year-long industrial dispute with councils.

The deadlock was broken last week when councils, using extra money from the Scottish government, made a fresh offer that would see most teachers' salaries rise by £5,200 in April.

The EIS said the deal was the best that could realistically be achieved during these negotiations.

General secretary, Andrea Bradley, said last week: "It is absolutely right to point out that this offer doesn't represent the achievement of all of our aims.

"But we have been clear for some time that any negotiation was going to feature an element of compromise."

The EIS paused targeted strikes that were being held in constituencies of senior politicians including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

It said future action - a 20-day wave of rolling strikes from 13 March - would depend on the outcome of the ballot.

On Thursday, members of the SSTA voted overwhelmingly to accept the deal.

In total 85.3% voted in favour, while 14.7% rejected it.

SSTA president Catherine Nicol said: "This dispute could, and should, have been resolved many months ago.

"Scottish government and Cosla should have been more prepared to negotiate with teacher unions properly and long before they did."

The SSTA suspended strike action last month after its members voted marginally in favour of an earlier pay offer.

However, it was rejected by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers, which includes the Scottish government, local authority body Cosla and the EIS and NASUWT unions.

NASUWT said it would ballot members on the latest pay package, but described it as "paltry" and said it fell short of what teachers wanted.

Teachers had initially demanded a 10% increase this year, with the dispute seeing almost all schools in Scotland closed by a series of strikes.

The latest proposal follows talks between the EIS, Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville and Deputy First Minister John Swinney last week.

Ms Somerville told the BBC: "I don't want to see any more disruption for our children and young people.

"We've clearly tried to compromise as this is the sixth offer on the table."