Category: News

UNISON, Scotland’s largest local government union, has today (Monday 29 August) confirmed that strikes will continue as they move to consult members on COSLA’s latest pay offer.  

UNISON will recommend its members vote to reject the offer in a consultative ballot in the coming days.  The decision comes in response to COSLA’s latest pay offer – received this morning – following a week of crises talks in which union representatives have worked night and day to try to find a solution to the current dispute.  UNISON has confirmed that strike dates in waste and recycling, schools, and early years, which have already been notified to the local authorities in which we have legal mandates, will continue as planned during the period of consultation.

The key elements of COSLA’s offer include:

• A minimum pay uplift of £1925, based on a 37-hour working week, matches the offer made to Local Government south of the border.  However, in Scotland only part of this payment will be consolidated into council workers’ ongoing pay, the rest will be delivered via one-off payments.

• Those earning less than £20,500 – around 1 in 5 of the council workforce – will receive a pro-rata gross pay increase in 2022 equal to £2,000.
• The removal of SSSC fees for all roles and grades where applicable, including social workers and social care workers among others.
• One additional day’s leave for all.

Johanna Baxter, UNISON Scotland head of local government, said: “UNISON negotiators have worked day and night to find a solution to this crisis. We welcome the contribution the Scottish Government has made to date and COSLA’s commitment to scrapping SSSC fees, their agreement to a one-off cost-of-living increase, and additional days’ leave.  However, as we have repeatedly told them both the size of the current cost envelope is simply not big enough to deliver a decent consolidated wage rise for the majority of our members.  

“UNISON’s local government committee met this morning and confirmed that strike action will continue while we consult our members on this latest offer.  Council workers are struggling to cope with the cost-of-living crisis after ten years of austerity.  This is another pay cut they simply cannot afford, which is why we are recommending they reject the offer and continue with the action already planned to try to secure a bigger consolidated sum.”

Mark Ferguson, chair of the local government committee said: “This is the first time since devolution that we have embarked on industrial action like this. Half of the council workers earn less than £25k per year and 85% earn less than £39k per year – they are all worried about paying their bills.  Inflation is continuing to rise, and our members are being asked to take a real-terms pay cut which will plunge even more of them into debt.  Strike action is the last resort and we are always open to getting around the table to reach a solution.”

Johanna Baxter, UNISON head of local government said: “We have held detailed constructive talks with Deputy First Minister this evening at St Andrews House. We welcome that he listened to UNISON concerns and was keen to explore how he could support getting council pay talks pay back on track.
We were clear that we need to rethink not only the construction of the pay offer, so that those on the lowest incomes are fairly treated, we also need to explore ways in which we can increase the overall cash available to come to a fair offer.

There was a general agreement that only two negotiating meetings in eight months on pay was not acceptable, and better processes needed to be put in place to facilitate finding speedier solutions on pay.
Although we do not have an offer today UNISON will continue to work with the Deputy First Minister and COSLA to find a way forward towards a solution that benefits all our members.”

UNISON, together with other local government trade unions, and representatives from COSLA will meet with the Deputy First Minister later today (Wednesday) to call for significantly increased funding to allow pay talks to continue.

UNISON, Scotland’s largest local government union, yesterday announced the latest strike dates which will disrupt schools, early years centres, nurseries and waste and recycling centres across Scotland in the coming weeks. This is the largest strike among council workers since the Trade Union Act was introduced in 2016 and UNISON’s mandate covers more than 13,000 workers across Scotland.

UNISON’s local government committee met this morning (Tuesday) to discuss the revised pay offer made yesterday by COSLA – the umbrella body representing council leaders – of a 5% undifferentiated rate for council workers. The committee agreed the offer is not good enough to put to members, noted that both parties had agreed to approach the Deputy First Minister to press for additional funding and strike action will continue as planned at present.

Johanna Baxter, UNISON Scotland’s head of local government, said: “A percentage increase would mean that those on the highest wages would get the highest pay increase while those on the lowest would receive the least – we believe that is completely unfair given the cost of living pressures affecting everyone right now. A flat-rate increase was a key element of our pay claim but the cost envelope that Leaders agreed last week was never going to be enough to provide members with a decent increase. Warm words don’t pay our members bills and we need the Deputy First Minister and COSLA to come up with a significantly improved financial package at the meeting today if widespread disruption is going to be averted.”

Mark Ferguson, chair of UNISON Scotland’s local government committee, said: “This pay offer is nowhere near the offer made to council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our members quite rightly want to know why the Scottish Government believes Scotland’s public service workers are worth so much less than their counterparts south of the border.

“With inflation currently running at above 10% – and only set to increase – this pay offer would be nothing more than a significant pay cut, and one that our members simply cannot afford as they struggle to meet rising fuel, food and household costs.”

Thursday 8th September
Assemble 10:30am: Johnson Terrace, EH1 2PW March off 11am 
Rally at the Scottish Parliament 11.30 – 1pm

The Cost-of-Living Crisis is hitting people across the country. Public service workers in particular are facing a fresh set of real terms pay cuts on top of years of stagnating wages.

The STUC and our affiliated unions are campaigning for a range of urgent actions to stem this crisis, including action to reduce energy bills, support for those of all ages on benefits, rent caps and action to reduce transport costs.

The ultimate responsibility for the Cost-of-Living Crisis sits with the Tories at Westminster. However, this does not mean that the Scottish Government is powerless. It needs to start by funding inflation level pay rises for Scottish public service workers. Join us on 8 September as we demand better for the public service workers of Scotland

UNISON has sent notices to nine councils across Scotland today the
23/08/2022 that school and early years staff will be on strike on the following dates:

6th, 7th and 8th of September,

This is after a lack of progress in talks with COSLA over council pay.

Staff will disrupt schools, early years centres, nurseries and waste and
recycling centres across Scotland, in the largest strike among council workers
since the Trade Union Act was introduced in 2016.

Members in Schools, Early Years and Nurseries will receive additional
communications over the next few days with more details.

No worker wants to take strike action, but the reality is if we don’t get an approved offer many of our members will be pushed into poverty due to the obscene price increases and blatant profiteering of the big energy and fuel companies.

Disaggregated Strike Action

Rather than calling for a full strike of all workers in the council, selecting smaller groups of workers for industrial action will cause disruption within the employers. This is disaggregated action

Our branch has successfully balloted members in Schools, Nurseries, Waste and Recycling for strike action.

Please support us

We are asking all members to support our strikers and even if you are not being asked to take industrial action there is a vital part you can play to secure better pay for all local government staff. Together We Rise In UNISON

• Pin badges will be available for you to wear to show your support for the strike.