London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

New pay offer for teachers in Scotland within days, says minister

New pay offer for teachers in Scotland within days, says minister

A new pay offer will be put to teachers within days, the Scottish government has confirmed.

Unions had said any new deal would need to be "significantly" improved to avoid further strike action.

Teachers have asked for a 10% rise, but the previous deal was worth between 5% and 6.85% for most staff.

Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has told BBC Scotland a fifth offer would now be put on the table.

A series of teachers' strikes have been held across Scotland since November, with more planned for later this month.

If additional Scottish government funds are made available, a meeting of local authority body Cosla will be held on Tuesday afternoon to agree a new offer before it is presented to unions.

Ms Somerville said: "The Scottish government has been working very closely with Cosla and we hope that an improved offer will be made imminently.

"We would hope to have something that Cosla would be able to announce to teaching unions within the next day or so."

The education secretary said she hoped the new offer would be enough to suspend planned strike action.

She also described the new proposal as both "affordable" and "exceptionally fair".

The dispute centres on the pay rise which teachers were due to receive in April last year.

The most recent offer was made before the first strike by the EIS union in November.


'On standby'


Nearly all pupils in Scotland have lost three or four days' worth of education since then.

The next strike action is due to be held on 28 February and 1 March.

The EIS is also planning targeted strikes at schools in a number of areas - including the Glasgow constituency of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Earlier, councillor Stephen McCabe, leader of Inverclyde Council, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland he was "on standby" to attend a meeting of the country's 32 local authority leaders on Tuesday to approve a revised pay offer.

He added: "What that offer will look like I don't know as I am not privy to the discussions which are taking place in government.

"I would hope that we could find a way to last least suspend the strikes, maybe pending further discussions around a two-year deal, but at this point in time I really don't know what the government is going to come up with."


Ms Somerville has previously said the government was committed to resolving the dispute as soon as possible.

She said the government was "progressing work for an improved offer to be put to teaching unions."

The Scottish Conservatives said it was "astonishing" that it had taken the education secretary three months to come up with a new offer.

The party's education spokesperson Stephen Kerr said: "Shirley-Anne Somerville has been asleep at the wheel throughout this entire pay dispute with teachers.

"The onus is on her to finally show the leadership required and ensure that this future disruptive action that is planned can be called off.

"So far the education secretary has been found wanting and her failures have flown in the face of the SNP insisting that education is their number one priority."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×