Union communications regarding pay for council staff and teachers: FOI release

Information requested

Minutes, agendas, handouts, attachments or briefings from any meeting involving the Scottish Government with unions over pay for council staff and teachers between July 1, 2024 to date.

Response

Teachers' pay

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested as discussions with the teacher unions over pay are held in private and are not minuted.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

Whilst these meetings are not minuted, the Scottish Government met with the teaching unions on three occasions during the 1 July to date - 9 August, 5 September and 12 September. At the 9 August meeting the teacher unions set out their criteria for a credible pay offer. At the meeting on 5 September COSLA presented the teaching unions with a revised pay offer of 4.27%, and at the meeting of 12 September, the teaching unions confirmed acceptance of this offer.

Council staff pay

The Scottish Government has no formal role in local government pay negotiations. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government was invited to meet with COSLA and SJC unions – at their joint request – on 30 July 2024 and we have attached two briefing documents and a note of this meeting which we hope you will find helpful. We have also attached three emails which relate to conversations between SJC unions and Special Advisers which we also hope will be helpful. Some personal information (names, email addresses and phone numbers) has been redacted under Section 38(1)(b) of FOISA. Some advice relating to ongoing pay negotiations has been redacted under Section 30(b)(i) of FOISA which relates to the provision of free and frank advice. Some material in relation to ongoing pay negotiations has also been redacted under Section 30(c) of FOISA which relates to the effective conduct of public affairs. Where relevant, we have considered the public interest test and have determined that these redactions remain. These papers are attached at Annex A to this letter.

These exemptions are subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400432045 - Information released - Annex A

File type

21 page PDF

File size

224.9 kB