Teachers vote to accept two-year pay deal

A Scottish teaching panel has unanimously voted to accept a two-year pay offer.

The Teachers’ Panel of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) has accepted the offer tabled by local authorities’ umbrella body Cosla.

The accepted terms include a 4% pay increase in 2025/26 followed by an additional 0.25% in April and 3.25% next August.

The SNCT Teachers’ Panel said it accepted the pay offer but added that much more was required in future years to ensure that the erosion in the value of teachers’ pay was fully addressed.

The SNCT committee is made up of the teachers’ unions, councils and the Scottish government.

Des Morris, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) salaries chairman of the SNCT Teachers’ Panel said: “This is a pragmatic decision, which will provide certainty on pay for Scotland’s teachers for a two-year period.

“In addition, there is a shared commitment, between all three sides of the SNCT, in the offer to negotiate the terms of a re-opener clause for Year 2 of the deal, to provide inflation protection for teachers.”

EIS previously urged its members to accept the deal, calling it the “best that its negotiators could achieve in the current circumstances.”

The accepted deal follows a dismissed pay offer in June from Scottish local authorities as teachers said it fell well below their expectations.

The pay deal which settled last year’s teachers’ strike meant a rise was due in August. Councils offered them a 2% rise in August and a further 1% rise next May.

The new pay deal of 4% was accepted as a unanimous decision and will be backdated to August 2025.

Mr Morris added: “In accepting this offer now, we are drawing a line under the issue of pay at the current time and moving to prioritise other key issues for our members, not least the ongoing formal SNCT dispute on reducing weekly class contact time.

“It is unfortunate that negotiations on pay have, once again, led to teachers receiving their pay rise late this year.

“The SNCT Teachers’ Panel urges all local authorities to now display greater alacrity in ensuring that the pay deal is fully implemented, and that teachers receive both their pay rise and all backdated money owed to them, prior to the Christmas break.”

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said she was “delighted” that teachers had accepted the offer, which she said “ensures that Scottish classroom teachers on the main-grade scale continue to be the best paid in the UK”.

She added: “I am particularly pleased that many teachers may now benefit from their backdated pay award ahead of Christmas.

“However, we should be achieving pay settlements for teachers earlier in the year, so I hope we can use the time this extended pay deal provides to explore how we might improve the process for the future.”