The Association’s Executive Committee is meeting on Friday 26 August to discuss the details of the formal ballot for Industrial Action. A statement to members will be made following the meeting. https://ssta.org.uk/2016/08/ballot-industrial-action-begin/
https://ssta.org.uk/2016/06/ssta-moves-industrial-action-ballot-cut-teacher-workload/
The Indicative Ballot has now closed. A statement was issued on Tuesday 6 June 2016
https://ssta.org.uk/2016/06/ssta-prepared-take-action-cut-teacher-workload/
Increasing teacher workload has been a major issue for SSTA members over a number of years and the SSTA has continuously pressed for measures to reduce teacher workload.
In March 2015, the Government published the ‘Tackling Bureaucracy – Follow-up Report’ that had been intended to reduce teacher workload.
In November 2015, the SSTA conducted a members’ survey on teacher workload that looked at the effectiveness of the ‘Tackling Bureaucracy’ report and the impact of National Qualifications. Results of members’ survey.
In December 2015, the SSTA National Council agreed to conduct an Indicative Ballot of members on taking measures to reduce teacher workload.
In January 2016, the Government established the Assessment and National Qualification Working Group in response to the demand to reduce teacher workload. The group was tasked to make recommendations for the 2016-2017 session and fundamental changes to the system for the long term. The SSTA decided to delay moving forward with the Indicative Ballot until a report was released.
In April 2016, the SSTA National Executive considered the initial report and sought further clarification from the SQA on workload reductions in the 2016-2017 session. SSTA Members’ Bulletin on National Qualifications.
The SSTA is now moving forward with an Indicative Ballot of members on the measures proposed to reduce teacher workload and the action members are prepared to take to reduce workload.
The Indicative Ballot will open on Thursday 19 May 2016 and close at 5pm on Thursday 2 June 2016. Emails with unique voting codes are being sent out to members on Thursday 19 May 2016. Members who have not received an email by Friday 20 May 2016, should contact SSTA HQ at info@ssta.org.uk with details of their work and personal email addresses. Please check the junk/spam folder on your email account before doing so as the email could have been incorrectly flagged as spam.