The leader of Scotland's largest council is writing to Michael Russell the education secretary, asking him to reopen the 'McCrone deal' after plans to force teachers to work longer hours in the classroom were unveiled.

Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council, argues that increasing teaching time by 30 minutes a day will save money and cuts to frontline education services in the city. However, if the Scottish Government approve the move, it will affect 51,000 teachers as their terms and conditions are agreed nationally.

"In law I must balance the books and, in order to do that we are facing serious cuts to frontline services" said Mr. Matheson. "I respect teachers, but we have brutal choices ahead and I believe this is a reasonable request to make. I would stress that no final decisions have been made, but we will be asking the Scottish Government to re-open the McCrone agreement."

Mr Matheson explained that cuts in education will amount to some £18m a year over the next three years and asking primary and secondary teachers to spend an additional 30 minutes every day teaching would save the council £15m annually, while still leaving school staff with 10 hours' paid preparation time every week.

The call provoked an angry response from the country's teaching unions, who regard the terms and conditions of school staff as sacrosanct.

Jane Peckham, Scottish organiser for NASUWT (the National Association of Schoolmasters' Union of Women Teachers) added: "Once again it is the public services, in this instance teachers, who are supposed to suffer in order to provide a solution to budgetary problems that were not of their making."

Most teachers already work far longer than their contracted hours already, with a survey in 2006 by Glasgow University finding they work an average of 45 hours a week.

A spokeswoman for COSLA, which represents councils, said that, given the "significant amount of expenditure" related to the local authority paybill, "local government is looking very carefully at every element of its workforce costs".

The McCrone deal, which was agreed between councils and teaching unions in 2001 to improve teachers pay and conditions, guaranteed teachers more than 12 hours a week to spend making and preparing lessons in school rather than taking the work home to do. It also gave them a 23% pay increase over three years addressing long-standing concerns that teachers salaries were falling behind other professions, according to the Scottish Herald

The McCrone agreement was also seen by councils as a mechanism to improve the professionalism of teachers and the quality of education, and some have argued these aspects of the agreement have not been honoured. It is understood the issue has already been discussed by COSLA, the umbrella body for councils, with other local authorities expressing interest.

Although it is still unknown where cuts will fall, one possibility is to scrap the highly influential Nurture class initiative, where teachers spend time in primaries with children who struggle when they first come to school. Other cuts could see the number of support teachers reduced, which would impact on the education of children with additional support needs and those who do not have English as a first language. Fitness initiatives and summer play schemes may also all face the axe as well as free fruit and breakfast clubs; while parents could face higher charges for school transport and tuition such as music lessons.

If you are worried about your workload, you can contact the Support Line on: 0800 564 2270 which is available 24 hrs a day seven days a week. Or you could try these factsheets:

• How working hours can impact on you
• Work life balance - What it is and how to achieve it
• Work-Life Wizard