TEACHERS are too important to be used as a "political football", the local authority umbrella body has warned in the wake of councils pulling out.
Cosla President Councillor David O'Neill echoed concerns voiced by Seamus Searson, the new general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association that moves by Aberdeen, Glasgow, Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire to leave the organisation because of political differences could damage education.
Teachers' pay and conditions are negotiated through Cosla and the body also agrees policy objectives with the Scottish Government such as maintaining teacher numbers or delivering free school meals.
Mr O'Neill said: "A consequence of Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Aberdeen City councils leaving Cosla is that it leaves the representation of the teaching workforce in these councils in collective bargaining limbo and to this extent, I can agree with the SSTA.
"The constitution of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), which involves the trade unions and the Scottish Government, defines the 'Employers Side' representation as being determined exclusively by Cosla.
"Scottish local government through Cosla has a long and proud history of collective bargaining through Cosla and unfortunately at present, these four councils have no locus and therefore as things stand, they have ruled themselves out of the loop. This is not good for teachers."
The four local authorities who left to set up a new organisation called the Scottish Local Government Partnership have pledged to continue to be part of the country's collective bargaining arrangements.
Mr O'Neill said he was "determined that teachers should not be prejudiced by the current state of affairs".
He added: "Because of the importance Cosla places on a stable framework regarding the pay and conditions of the workforce, Cosla would wish to see national collective bargaining arrangements for all council employees, including our teachers, maintained.
"We have opened talks with the four councils to make it possible for them to participate under the Cosla umbrella and we are awaiting their response."
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