Teachers' pay talks break up

Marathon pay talks are set to continue

Talks aimed at agreeing a pay and conditions deal for Scotland's teachers have broken up after only a few minutes.

Education Minister Jack McConnell, union officials and representatives from local government employers the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), were not expected to meet again until the end of the week.

Mr McConnell was hopeful major strides would be made at the planned meeting on Monday morning in Edinburgh.

But there was no movement over the 21.5% three-year pay and conditions package.

'Lacking detail'

The country's largest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) said the proposals, worth £800m, lacked detail.

And its general secretary Ronnie Smith declared before the meeting that there was "no prospect of a deal" emerging.

He said: "As far as I'm concerned we have to get this right. We cannot close a deal that's incomplete. It's far too important for that and it needs to be credible for the 50,000 plus teachers for three years."

Jack McConnell is hopeful a deal can be reached

Cosla had also expressed dissatisfaction with the package, asserting that it was still £120m short of what was needed.

Following Monday's meeting, a spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said: "Constructive discussions between all parties are continuing and the implementation group will meet again towards the end of the week with a view to concluding the process."

Speaking before the brief summit, Mr McConnell said: "It is important that employers and teaching unions are involved in the discussions."

He told BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme that the current deal on the table would provide "stability in the classroom".

'Good for teachers'

Mr McConnell said: "It would give us a chance to have massive cultural change in the Scottish education system.

"This would be good for teachers, pupils and the local community.

"It would allow us to get the new teachers we have been looking for and reward teachers for the professional job that they do, not just for pupils but the profession as a whole."

The three parties involved in the discussions have been aiming to find an agreement for the final implementation of the McCrone committee recommendations on pay and conditions.