Community Scotland statement on latest teachers’ pay offer

Community @communityunionMarch 6, 2023

After prolonged discussions at the end of last week, COSLA and Scottish Government agreed to make their “best and final offer” on teachers’ pay following the ongoing dispute.

The following offer is for 28 months and is in three parts and covers the period 1 April 2022 to 31 July 2024:

a 7% increase at all Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) pay points with effect from 1/4/22, with a cap at a starting salary of £80,000 or over, where a £5,600 flat rate uplift to salary will apply;
a further increase of 5% at all SNCT pay points with effect from 1/4/23, with a cap at a starting salary of £80,000 or over where a £4,000 flat rate uplift to salary will apply; and
a further increase of 2% at all SNCT pay points with effect from 1/1/24, with a cap at a starting salary of £80,000 or over where a £1,600 flat rate uplift to salary will apply.

The offer in full is here.

Those teaching unions taking industrial action have called off their planned action and the majority have agreed to recommend acceptance of the offer to their members.

Senior Professional Officer (Scotland) Dougie Atkinson said:

“I am glad that Scottish Government and COSLA have seen sense and further enhanced the pay offer for teachers, and we have arrived at a position where the teaching unions feel they can recommend the offer to their members.

“In our recent survey of our teacher members, three out of four voted in favour to accept the offer of 14 February, and this latest offer is an improvement on that, so I am glad that at last teachers will get a pay rise which will help them deal with the crippling increases in the cost of living that we all face.

“It also provides some certainty over teacher earnings until July 2024. Going forward, the new pay settlement date for teachers will be 1 August.”

We expect a Teachers’ Panel meeting, including Community, will take place next week once the unions have consulted their members and will jointly accept the offer on behalf of all the teaching unions.