SECONDARY school teachers say their “volume of work is simply incompatible with a sustainable career” as 90 per cent rank “excessive demands” as the number one cause of stress in their workplace, a union survey has found.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) health, safety and wellbeing (HSW) committee has found 93.7 per cent of the 600 respondents ranked excessive workload as a the prime factor affecting their mental health.

Teachers ranked lack of “support” and poor management of organisation second and third respectively in a survey SSTA HSW committee convener Grant McAllister said showed “a profession pushed to the breaking point.”

He added: “We must stop calling it a ‘workload issue’ and start treating it as a serious risk to health and safety.

“Our members’ GPs don’t sign them off with workload, they sign them off with work-related stress. 

“The volume of work is simply incompatible with a sustainable career.”

A Scottish government spokesperson responded: “We are committed to working with teaching unions and Cosla to agree our approach to delivering a reduction in class contact time at pace.”