A TRADE union general secretary is in line for a huge £9,700 salary boost if his organisation secures a 10 per cent pay rise for teachers.

Larry Flanagan, who leads the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), has his annual salary rises pegged to teachers and a 10 per cent hike would take his pay to over £100,000 for the first time.

However, some lower paid staff who work under Flanagan have separate arrangements and have only been given a three per cent deal.

An EIS spokesperson said a union sub-committee was “already aware” of Flanagan’s salary “potentially” crossing the £100,000 threshold and said the issue may be considered.

The EIS, which is the country’s biggest teaching trade union, is in talks with the Scottish Government and council representatives about a pay rise for its members.

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No agreement has been reached by the tripartite body responsible for negotiations and the EIS recently knocked back a deal floated by councils.

The “differentiated” rise would have given a three per cent bump to most teachers, but delivered a smaller rise to better-paid staff.

However, the union believed the offer was unacceptable and is pushing for a double-digit boost in the talks.

The Herald: Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, appears before Holyrood's education committee

Flanagan said in January: “A good first step towards restoring teachers' pay to an acceptable level would be the delivery of a 10 per cent pay increase for all teachers in 2018."

Such a deal would mean that a teacher on £36,840 would receive a £3,684 increase, while headteachers on £68,997 would get a £6,899 boost.

It has now emerged that a 10 per cent rise for teachers would trigger the same deal for Flanagan, who has been general secretary since 2012.

A union agreement links the salary increases of all EIS officials and officers, including the general secretary, to those of teachers.

For Flanagan, the link relates to the top of the headteacher pay scale and ties any annual cost of living increase to that received by those who work in the classroom.

If teachers receive a one per cent rise, Flanagan also receives this amount, and so the same would be true of a 10 per cent increase.

According to official EIS documents, Flanagan received a remuneration package in 2017 of £127,040, of which £97,509 was salary. If Flanagan received an additional 10 per cent, his salary would jump to around £107,259.

As revealed by the Sunday Herald in February, the administrative staff group at the EIS, whose members receive a fraction of the salary enjoyed by the general secretary, are to benefit from a three per cent rise.

At the time, the EIS said this group had not been subject to the pay freezes or that others had received for the past decade.

In an interview last year, Flanagan said: “I still consider myself a socialist.”

Scottish Tory MSP shadow education secretary Liz Smith said: “A 10 per cent increase in teacher salaries is simply not sustainable in the current economic climate. Nor does it seem right that this demand is being made by those whose salaries are pegged to those of our hard working teachers. That is not appropriate given the different nature of the two types of jobs in question.”

An EIS spokesperson said: “The EIS finance sub-committee is already aware of the issue of the general secretary’s salary potentially crossing the £100,000 threshold should the 10 per cent pay claim for teachers be successfully delivered. The FSC may consider the position once the current pay campaign is concluded.”