Teacher workload ‘not sustainable’ union says as strike action ballot opens

It is “simply not sustainable” for teachers to spend so much of their own time tackling their workload, a union chief has said, as she urged members to back strike action over a dispute on class contact time.

The SNP pledged in its manifesto ahead of the 2021 election to reduce contact time to 21 hours per week, but EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said the Government has “delivered absolutely nothing”.

The EIS has opened a statutory ballot for industrial action as a result, with the union’s leadership pushing for teachers to back both strike action and action short of a strike.

The Scottish Government said it is “disappointed” the ballot has been opened.

Ms Bradley said that teachers are currently spending hours in the evenings, at weekends and even during holidays dealing with their workload because they do not have enough time allocated to do it in the working week which she said is “simply not sustainable”.

Discussing potential strike action on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme she was asked whether the issue was so important to teachers that children might miss school as a result.

She replied: “Yes, absolutely. Because the reason why teachers are so overworked at the moment, to the tune of, a day to two days a week extra unpaid – the equivalent of that in terms of the number of additional hours that they’re doing – it is all around the work that they are doing to differentiate learning experiences, to provide quality feedback for individual learners, to make sure that assessment is properly tailored to the needs of the individuals in their classes.

“And this all against the backdrop of now us having around 40% of children and young people with additional needs, so this is really an investment in quality learning, teaching and assessment for the children and young people who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the service.

“We know that teachers, because they don’t have enough time allocated to this within their working week currently, are spending hours in the evenings, at weekends and even during holiday periods in order to get done what they need to get done and it’s simply not sustainable.

“It’s not fair on them. It’s not healthy for them to work like that, and it’s not sustainable in the long term.”

Any action would be likely to be taken ahead of next year’s Holyrood election and could damage the prospects of the SNP if a resolution is not reached.

In a statement issued earlier Ms Bradley said that in opening the ballot, the union is “reminding the Scottish Government and Cosla that it is essential that they keep their promises to Scottish education, Scotland’s teachers and Scotland’s learners”.

She said: “It is simply not acceptable for national or local politicians to be elected on the promise of improving education, in this case by tackling teacher workload and employing more teachers, then failing to deliver upon those promises, particularly when issues around teacher workload and precarity of employment are so serious.

“This ballot is a chance for Scotland’s teachers to show both their employers and the Scottish Government their strength of feeling, and to compel them to work constructively together and act on teacher workload.

“I would urge all eligible EIS members to look out for their ballot paper arriving in the post, and to cast their vote in this hugely important ballot.

“The EIS executive strongly recommends to members that they should vote yes to strike action and yes to action short of strike.

“We must send the type of strong and united message that is impossible for the politicians to ignore.”

The patience of both teachers and the union, Ms Bradley added, was “at an end on this issue”.

The ballot runs until January 14.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “Ministers have been clear that reducing class contact will help support the time and space necessary for teachers, to allow them to drive improvement and reform in our schools and improve outcomes for their pupils.

“We are committed to working with teaching unions and Cosla to agree our approach to delivering a reduction in class contact time at pace.

“Ministers respect union members’ right to withdraw their labour, but are disappointed that the EIS has taken this action while these constructive discussions are ongoing.”