Scotland’s biggest teaching union has claimed the Scottish Government and councils “have little or no interest” in finding the funding required to end a pay dispute.

Teachers are in the midst of strike action, with a wave of walkouts currently underway and more on the way.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously said there is a “gap” between what is being asked for and what is affordable.

Following a meeting with the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) – the body tasked with coming up with teacher pay deals made up of the Scottish Government, Cosla and teaching unions – Des Morris, the salaries convener at the EIS, said: “It is becoming increasingly clear that both the Scottish Government and Cosla have little or no interest in finding the modest additional funding that could bring a new offer to the table to potentially end this pay dispute.

“Five months since their sub-inflationary 5% pay offer was overwhelmingly rejected by teachers, and more than two months since a rehashed version of the same offer was again rejected, the Scottish Government and Cosla brought absolutely nothing new to the table in last week’s meeting – just a stubborn stance that Scotland’s teachers should accept 5% which represents yet another substantial real-terms pay cut that only further erodes the value of teachers’ pay.”

Mr Morris said the unions want to negotiate, but accused the Government of “a repeated and unreasonable insistence that all of the compromise must come from Scotland’s teachers”.

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