THE first strikes over pay in Scottish schools for nearly 30 years have come a step closer.

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union backed unanimously the use of industrial action unless progress on salaries is made with local authority employers.

EIS members staged a walk-out in 2011 as part of a wider public sector protest over changes to pensions, but the last time the sector held a strike on pay was in 1986.

The EIS is demanding a pay increase of 5% to redress a decline in salary levels over the past few years, but councils offered 2.5% over two years instead, which has now been rejected.

Delegates at the EIS annual general meeting in Perth backed a motion from the union's Dundee local association calling for a campaign for a "restorative" pay deal, adding: "If no satisfactory outcome is forthcoming, members are to be balloted for industrial action up to and including strike action."

Tom Tracey, convener of the EIS salaries committee, said: "We need to go out of here and speak to our members and say to them that this is a possibility. There is no point waiting for the negotiations to bed down."

Later, Scottish teachers unanimously backed calls for a boycott of internal assessment and marking work undertaken as part of new qualifications introduced by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

The move follows ongoing concern over the amount of additional workload facing teachers following the roll-out of National 4 and National 5 exams, which replaced Standard Grade last summer.

The East Lothian local association called for the EIS ruling council to campaign for a reduction of workload and bureaucracy involved in "testing, retesting and marking" of internal SQA assessments.

And a joint motion from Highland local association and West Dunbartonshire local association added: "That this agm resolve to ballot secondary school members by December 2015 on industrial action, amounting to a boycott of cooperation with SQA..... until such time as the SQA reduces the enormous burden and reforms the nature of internal assessments for all courses."

Alison MacDonald, from the Highland local association, said the SQA had "grossly abused the professional trust of teachers".

She added: "We are all aware of the appalling bureaucracy. We are all aware of the detrimental impact on pupils. We now propose to draw a line in the sand because we really cannot have another year like this."

Michael Dolan, from the EIS West Dunbartonshire branch, said the burden of assessment had been "dumped" on teachers with the number of external exams being cut drastically.

Graham Boyd, from East Ayrshire, said: "Pupils are being bombarded with assessments and are becoming ill. The SQA has become a bureaucratic monster that needs slayed."