SQA staff could strike during student appeals period

A strike that could affect the student appeals process is being proposed by a union in a row over pay.

Unite will launch an industrial action ballot involving workers at the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) after they voted down a pay offer that ranged from 1.7% to 4%.

On an 85% turnout, 95% rejected the pay offer, with 84% indicating they would be prepared to strike.

The SQA has said it will continue to discuss the pay offer with unions.

Unite represents hundreds of workers at the exams body.

It has hit out at the pay offer as the retail price index of inflation has soared to 11.8% - a figure it says is a 40-year high.

The Scottish government announced in June that the SQA is to be scrapped as part of a "substantial" overhaul of education.

The exams body is to be broken up and replaced, with pupils, parents and teachers to be consulted on changes.

Three new education bodies will be created - a qualifications body, a national agency for Scottish education, and an independent inspection body.

Concerns have been raised about a lack of assurances over job roles and locations, conditions and pay within any new organisation.

Unite industrial officer Alison MacLean said: "Hundreds of our SQA members are increasingly concerned about their futures due to the replacement of the SQA.

"They are being expected to just get on with it, and now to add insult to injury some of our members are also being made an offer as low as 1.7% while inflation soars.

"Unite will defend our members' jobs, pay and conditions, and we will now ballot on strike action which could directly hit the student appeals process."

The Scottish government's education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has said scrapping the exams body "won't happen overnight".

Instead, the government has committed to the new model being fully operational by 2024.

Ms MacLean said it "beggars belief" that a new organisation could be in place by the winter without issues being resolved.

"We have legitimate concerns over changes to job roles, conditions and pay due to the SQA's disbanding," she said.

"How on earth the Scottish government think they can have a new organisation in action by the winter without all these issues being resolved just beggars belief."

A spokesperson for the SQA said: "Thousands of learners are currently waiting for their results. They can be confident that delivery of their results on August 9 remains firmly on track.

"Like all public bodies, SQA is subject to the Scottish government's public sector pay policy, and the 2022-23 pay offer complies with those requirements.

"We will continue to discuss the pay offer with both of our recognised trade unions."