A spokesman for the council said senior posts had been reduced from 34 to 26, making a cumulative saving of pound;700,000 a year.

“This is the first review of senior management salaries for five years,” he said. “Other comparable councils and public sector organisations have carried out similar reviews which reflect changing responsibilities and demands of senior management. Renfrewshire has been left in an increasingly uncompetitive position.”

Under proposals due to go before the council yesterday, directors would be given an increase in salary from pound;95,583 to pound;101,985 (6.7 per cent) and heads of service would see their pay rise from pound;66,873 to pound;78,045 (16.7 per cent).

Ian McCrone, local area secretary of the Renfrewshire local association of the Educational Institute of Scotland, told a packed meeting this week: “In the past couple of months, our part-time teachers have had their pointages shaved, their hours cut, their services dispensed with, their service broken, sick pay rights lost and their job prospects taken away. They will be interested to know there is still enough money - pound;321,000, the cost of eight teacher jobs - to regrade senior officers.”

EIS members voted unanimously at their annual conference to use “all appropriate means” to oppose education budget cuts and to oppose any plans that would lead to increases in class sizes.

All three teacher unions - the EIS, Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association and NASUWT - are in formal dispute with the SNP-led council. Mr McCrone said meetings were being held this week in a bid to reverse the council’s earlier budget cuts.

He also warned that Renfrewshire Council planned to use teachers in the support for learning network for absence cove. “We face the prospect of specialist learning support teachers being pulled from this role at short notice and children who need support being denied this,” he said.