Teaching union fury at rise in pension payments

Published on 01/03/2013 00:00

SCOTLAND’S two largest teaching unions have attacked plans to make their members pay more to their pensions.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) said the changes would impose a further 1.2 per cent in pension deductions from teachers’ pay, taking the average contribution rate to 8.96 per cent. EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said: “The contribution hike that the Scottish Government has set out today is absolutely unjustifiable.

“It has nothing to do with the cost of teacher pensions, but is simply an austerity tax which was originally designed by the UK government to raise finance for the UK Treasury.”

He added: “The EIS is about to commence a consultative ballot on potential industrial action around future pension scheme design.”