SCOTLAND’S largest teaching union the EIS has issued a formal notice of members’ intention to take industrial action in a long-running workload dispute.

Last week the union announced that its members had overwhelmingly backed strike action over the Scottish government’s failure to honour the SNP’s 2021 manifesto pledge to recruit 3,500 teachers, reduce class contact time to 21 hours, tackle zero-hours contracts and address teacher unemployment.

The ballot result spurred Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth to convene emergency talks with teaching unions and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), arguing: “No-one’s interests will be served by industrial action in our schools. This will significantly disrupt children and young people’s learning, particularly in the crucial period leading up to exams, as well as causing disruption to parents, carers and school communities.”

After those talks got under way on Thursday, the EIS executive kept the pressure up, issuing a 10-day formal notice on Friday, raising the prospect — if no deal is found — of a national teaching strike within just six weeks of May’s Holyrood election.

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley acknowledged some progress had been made in talks — “but so far, we have nothing in writing.”

She said: “The EIS remains fully committed to seeking a negotiated solution to this dispute and will remain available in the coming days and before the closing of this 10-day window for meaningful discussion with the Scottish government and local authority employers through Cosla.

“We would urge those other parties to use this window wisely and to move swiftly to ensure that an agreement can be reached to end this dispute.

“After five years of waiting and more than a year in dispute, Scotland’s teachers and the EIS will expect to see a firm and binding commitment, in writing and signed by all parties, before we are willing to remove the prospect of industrial action being undertaken in Scotland’s schools.”

Cosla resources spokesman Councillor Ricky Bell said that talks between councils, government and unions would continue.

“For this to be implemented, councils require full funding and an assurance that reducing the time teachers spend in front of their classes by 90 minutes per week to 21 hours will have a positive impact on children and young people,” he said.

“We therefore welcome the Scottish government’s acknowledgement that additional funding is required.”