Council saved £245,000 on wages from one day of teacher strike action

dailyrecord.co.uk:

It is estimated Perth and Kinross Council saved £245,000 as a result of the teacher strike on November 24, 2022.Councillors last week expressed discomfort at the cash-strapped council benefiting financially from teachers going on strike.A pledge was made to consider spending the money not paid to teaching union members on their strike days in a fair way.The financial implication was revealed to councillors on Perth and Kinross Council's Finance and Resources Committee on Wednesday, February 1.

An update on PKC's revenue budget for 2022/23 showed it was currently estimated at £245,000. The council has since confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service it was purely from the industrial action taken by teachers in November.At Wednesday's meeting councillors were asked to approve transferring the underspend from PKC's Education and Children's Services budget to the council's unearmarked reserves.Industrial action by EIS members saw all Perth and Kinross schools and nurseries close on November 24.

On December 8 secondary school teachers who are members of the SSTA and NASUWT unions went on strike. There were further teacher strikes in January 2023 and there are more scheduled meaning it is likely there will be a further underspend in the council's budget.Labour Carse of Gowrie councillor Alasdair Bailey expressed unease.Bailie Bailey said: "It's a crying shame that we end up as a financial beneficiary of the strikes.

I think it's incumbent on all of us elected members to figure out a way of spending that money in a very equitable way when the opportunity arises in the budget meeting in a month."Convener Stewart Donaldson assured the Labour councillor the SNP administration would factor that into account in its budget.He