This letter is from Carol Ball, Chair of UNISON Education Issues Group to John Swinney, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills.
Carol says that is the Scottish government truly value the contribution of the whole workforce, then if they are minded to give a higher pay award to the teaching workforce, you should equally be minded to do the same for local authority education support staff too.
Carol says: “A decent pay rise is what our members are looking for. It is for you to justify why they should not be entitled to parity with teachers they work alongside when they have both suffered a real terms drop in income of some 15% since 2010 as a consequence of austerity”