Primary, secondary and additional support learning schools will be shut in Edinburgh next Thursday as teachers take strike action over pay.
The news was confirmed to parents in a letter from the Council yesterday.
The strike action on November 24 comes after members of the Educational Institute of Scotland, the country’s largest teaching union, voted overwhelmingly to back action.
Some 96% of those who voted – on a turnout of 71% – backed strike action, after a 5% pay rise was rejected earlier this year.
Union bosses said the decision to strike “had not been taken lightly” and urged the Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) to return to the negotiating table.
But EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley called on staff “in all of Scotland’s schools” to strike on November 24, in what will be the first action of its kind over pay in almost 40 years.
She said: “We hoped not to get to this point, and have given local authorities and the Scottish Government ample time to come up with a fair pay offer.”
Councillor Joan Griffiths, the education, children and families convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said the planned strike action had left the local authority “with no choice”.
She said: “Our top priority will always be our young people’s education but the Scottish Government and COSLA must act now and get round the table immediately with the unions to come up with a deal that avoids these potential strikes.
“They waited far too long when it came to resolving the bin strikes in the summer and it caused untold disruption across Edinburgh and other cities in Scotland.
“Our young people have already missed enough time in the schools through the pandemic without having to suffer more lost learning away from the classroom. For the sake of our children’s education the Scottish Government and Cosla must get this sorted as a priority.”
