'Scandalous': Union condemns Scottish council after it told 130 teachers they will be out of a job this summer

EIS says 80 primary and 50 secondary teachers are received the email

A Scottish local authority is under fire over the “scandalous” way it told 130 teachers their contracts would not be renewed.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), Scotland’s largest teaching union, said North Lanarkshire Council e-mailed 80 primary teachers and 50 secondary teachers on Friday afternoon to say they would not be offered temporary or fixed term contracts from August.

The union said it had been contacted by “very distressed” members who now face the prospect of unemployment after the summer.

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EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said: “The issuing of these notifications by North Lanarkshire Council, with no prior notice whatsoever, late on a Friday and within days of the summer holidays, has caused serious upset amongst the teachers affected.

"Instead of being able to start their well-earned summer break on a high, they are deeply anxious and worried about how they are going to cover the costs of food and housing as prices and mortgage rates and rents continue to soar.

"After years of study and training to become teachers, when class sizes are full to bursting, and when there’s insufficient support for children and young people with additional support needs, it is quite scandalous that highly qualified professionals face such casualisation and precarity.”

Ms Bradley said a lack of job security was “endemic” across Scotland.

“There are hundreds, if not thousands of teachers, all over Scotland who are unable to progress in their lives because of lack of certainty that they will have a job from one week to the next,” she said.

North Lanarkshire Council has been contacted for comment.