The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) have today both condemned the hike in pensions’ contributions that have to be paid by Scotland’s teachers.

Following an announcement from the Scottish government today, a further 1.2 per cent in pension deductions will be imposed on teachers’ pay, taking the overall contribution rate to 8.96 per cent, on average.

EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan described the pension hike as “absolutely unjustifiable”. He added: “It has nothing to do with the cost of teacher pensions but it is simply an austerity tax which was originally designed by the UK government to raise finance for the UK treasury.

“The EIS is about to commence a consultative ballot on potential industrial action around future pension scheme design. This tax increase will simply incense members as they prepare to vote on future action.”

SSTA acting general secretary Alan McKenzie said: “Once again Scottish teachers have become the victim of double speak. Scottish government in particular needs to be honest and declare that it is powerless in the face of this additional and unnecessary tax from Westminster that simply ignores the very real plight of our members.”

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