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Glasgow. Holyrood Secondary School. 100 Dixon Road, Glasgow G42 8AU.

EIS members on the picket line today at Holyrood Secondary School..
eachers set to begin three-day targeted strikes in key constituencies
The strikes, in the constituencies of key politicians including Nicola Sturgeon, are part of an ongoing dispute over pay.
Teachers are set to begin further targeted strike action in an ongoing dispute over fair pay.

Schools in constituencies of key politicians, including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s, are involved in the industrial action, which will amount to six days after further strikes next month.

Many schools in the five affected areas will be closed for three days from Wednesday as the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) escalates industrial action in the long-running dispute over pay, with a further three days of action planned next month.

EIS members are striking in Glasgow Southside, Dunfermline, Perthshire North and the part of Clydebank and Milngavie constituency that lies within the East Dunbartonshire Council area between February 22 and 24.

The union has singled out the areas which are covered by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister John Swinney, Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scottish Green education spokesman Ross Greer and Katie Hagmann, the resources spokeswoman for local authority body Cosla, for further action.
This will be on top of national strikes on February 28 and March 1, and another 20 days of rolling walkouts across Scotland’s local authorities between March 13 and April 21, following strikes earlier in 2023 and late last year.

Parents have voiced concerns over the targeted action, branding it “inequitable and unfair” for pupils in the affected areas.

It comes after the EIS rejected the latest pay offer put to it by Somerville, the MSP for Dunfermline in Fife, which would have meant a 6% pay boost backdated to April 2022 for teachers who earn up to £80,000 and a further 5.5% from the start of the 2023 financial year, in what is the fifth offer put to them.

EIS president Andrene Bamford said the resolve of the teaching workforce to push for a 10% pay rise remains.

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “Today’s intensification of strike action is a direct result of the failure of the Scottish Government and Cosla to deliver an acceptable pay offer to Scotland’s teachers.

“As a result, this intensified strike action is targeted directly at the politicians with the ability to deliver a better pay offer that can end this pay dispute – just as is happening in health.”

She added: “Parents and students have every right to be angry at the fact that local and national politicians continue to collude in withholding a fair settlement from Scotland’s teachers.”

She said after taking legal advice it is up to individual EIS members if they wish to enter into voluntary agreements with the Scottish Qualification Authority to mark exam scripts.
Tara Fitzpatrick
By Ta

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