Scotland’s Largest Teaching Union to Ballot for Industrial Action over Changes to the Teachers' Pension Scheme

Parents will be concerned to learn that teachers are considering balloting on strike action to protect their pensions.


Commenting, Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) General Secretary Ronnie Smith said,
"For hard-pressed teachers, the prospect of paying more of their salary into a pension scheme with the promise of working longer and getting far less at the end just might be the straw that breaks the camel's back."
This shows how seriously teachers view this issue.


I think the SNP government in Holyrood has a very serious obligation to parents and pupils to ensure we do not return to the type of industrial action which closed Scotland's schools during the 1980s. This led to repeated school closures and gaps in teaching and learning for pupils preparing for examinations. In the longer term there was a loss of goodwill which translated into a decline in out of school activities previously voluntarily supported by teachers. It has taken a long time to rebuild trust between employers and their teachers and for goodwill to be evident again. This could easily be thrown away by heavy handed action by the SNP government in Edinburgh.


The changes Labour made to the teaching profession set in place a proper procedure for resolving disputes, and it brought stability to the classroom for a decade. These procedures are being bypassed by the SNP Government in Holyrood which has led to Teachers contemplating strike action.


I hope the SNP's Education Convener in the City will join me in calling on the government in Edinburgh to stop bypassing the existing processes for negotiating with our teachers.

Threat of Further Cuts in Dundee Schools as Budget May be £500,000 Short

A lack of progress in national negotiations with Teachers led by the Scottish Government has led to concerns that there may be a black hole in the budget of the Education Department in Dundee. I have been advised that the figure may be near £500,000. The SNP's swingeing education cuts of £4.1 million for the forthcoming financial year may not be enough.

In the process of agreeing the budget settlement for local government, the SNP's Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney MSP, offered councils his government’s commitment to agree reductions in the terms and conditions of work of teachers by the end of January. Now that no progress has been made, the savings the city council assumed in arriving at its education budget will need to be revisited. Unfortunately, I think this means that the Education Convener, Liz Fordyce, will be looking out for more cuts.

Back in December, I made it clear that I thought that these assumptions were optimistic and the savings projected were unlikely to be realised in such a short time scale. This is another example of SNP mismanagement and unfortunately it will be the education of our children that will suffer as a result, because short term cuts often lead to long term damage.

Councillor Richard McCready said:

“I hope this budget shortfall won’t mean we will have more ill thought out schemes, such as the proposed relocation and downgrading of Law Nursery, being proposed piece by piece. Dundee deserves better.”