Welcome to SEJ Digital
Industrial action threat was key to class contact agreement
As members will know, the EIS recently reached an agreement on the delivery of the reduction in class contact time first promised to Scotland’s teachers five years ago, prior to the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
For a long time after that promise was made, little happened. The EIS and other teaching unions sought progress through discussions with employers and government via the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), but progress was painfully slow.
After four years with essentially no progress towards delivery of the class contact commitment, a hard deadline was declared by the teachers’ side of the SNCT (which was missed by employers and government), and a formal dispute declared.
Eventually, with patience exhausted, the EIS and its sister teaching unions sought to raise the stakes by balloting members for industrial action. An initial consultative ballot by the EIS had previously indicated very strong levels of support for strike action over workload.
The forthcoming Scottish Parliament election afforded an opportunity to increase the pressure on politicians, by reminding them of the promises that had been made to Scotland’s teachers. Securing an agreement, supported by a programme of industrial action, ahead of election purdah halting the Scottish Government’s ability to make spending commitments, was key.
A spanner was thrown in the unions’ collective works by the highly restrictive trade union laws brought in by the previous UK Conservative government. The legal requirement to hold strike ballots only by post, relying on a postal service that is currently under severe service pressures as a result of the policies of its private-sector ownership, was a significant barrier.
So too were the highly restrictive ballot thresholds placed on public sector workers during any statutory ballot. The end result was that the EIS fell narrowly short of achieving the necessary mandate for industrial action, much to the obvious delight of government and employers who clearly believed they had been let off the hook.
The EIS was not having it. A decision was quickly made to re-ballot, and to run an expedited campaign to beat the thresholds and to secure a legal mandate for action. The other unions who had previously balloted opted not to follow suit, leaving the EIS alone in the fight to secure delivery of the promise to reduce teachers’ class contact time with the threat of strike action.
After a herculean effort by all involved – members, Reps, activists, EIS employees at national and local levels, office bearers, committee members and conveners – the second statutory ballot successfully smashed through the ballot thresholds, with 93% of members backing Action Short of Strike (ASOs) and 85% backing strike action, on a 60% turnout.
The result of the EIS re-ballot shocked government and employers, and the response was almost instantaneous. Suddenly, the other parties were far more willing to talk constructively with a view to resolving the dispute. It is of absolutely no doubt that it was the pressure created by the EIS statutory ballot result that led to this sudden shift in attitude.
Less than a week after the EIS ballot result was declared, and an agreement was reached between the EIS and the Scottish Government on a way ahead to end the dispute. Then, just a few days later, COSLA came on board as well, signing up for the agreement to deliver the promised reductions in class contact time for all teachers.
It is the pressure created by EIS members, through voting in the statutory ballot and backing the call to industrial action, that created the leverage which helped to secure an agreement on class contact time. Without that pressure, it is likely that the opportunity to secure a deal on class contact time would have been lost, quite possibly forever.
