Unite the union has said today that its 400-plus Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) members have accepted an improved pay offer.
It means that industrial action due to have extended into SQA exams season - from Monday 22 April to Thursday 30 May - will no longer take place.
Unite members took strike action on 23 February, but have also taken action short of a strike, which had been planned to continue until Friday 10 May.
The union said today that a revised offer, put to the workforce late last week, has been accepted, meaning a 5.75 per cent pay increase in 2023, and 3.15 per cent for 2024 along with a £1,000 cash lump sum. An initial pay offer had amounted to 4.75 per cent for 2023, according to the union.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The pay offer now accepted by the majority of Unite’s membership at the SQA represents a significant shift from the education body’s original position.
“Unite alone has moved the dial during this dispute and our members can be proud of the brave position that they have taken.”
However, the union has concerns over the “hostile attitude” of SQA senior management and said the dispute could have been resolved “months ago”.
Concerns over education reforms
Unite has also raised concerns over the SQA’s “failure, along with the Scottish government, to meaningfully consult with unions on education reform”, specifically citing the proposals to replace the SQA and a “lack of assurances over job roles and locations, conditions and pay...in any new organisation”.
The union’s 400-plus members at the SQA amount to a significant minority of the body’s approximately 1,000 employees. They work in all grades and job roles at the national qualifications body, including administrators, managers, processors and researchers.
Unite industrial officer Alison MacLean, said: “Despite this current dispute coming to an end, the existing problems at the SQA have not gone away. In fact, some of them are getting worse and our members have had enough of the divisive and increasingly hostile attitude by senior management towards staff and unions.”
‘Tensions’ still exist
Ms MacLean added: “If the prevailing attitude persists, then the tensions between management, the workforce and unions will continue to rise.
“Unite’s concerns over the Scottish government’s education reform agenda also continue to grow because there remains zero clarity for the workforce over the day-to-day working of any new body.”
An SQA spokesperson said: “We are pleased that the membership of both Unite and Unison have now accepted the improved two-year pay offer which brings industrial action to an end.
“SQA has operated in good faith throughout these negotiations, operating within the limits of public sector pay policy. The improved pay offer was made possible when the Scottish government gave us flexibility and funding last week to operate beyond these limits.
“We will now seek to move forward together and focus on delivering for Scotland’s learners.”
The SQA said that the agreed deal represents a total average increase of 7.43 per cent in year one and a further total average rise of 5.19 per cent in year two, including pay progression, which “is in addition to a non-consolidated and non-pensionable £1,000 pro-rata payment for all colleagues”.
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