Strike action looms over local government pay in Scotland following union ballots

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Consultative ballots by UNISON and the GMB revealed that over 90% of participants would back strike action if employers’ body COSLA did not improve the offer, which was made in February and immediately rejected by union leaders.

Member of the third local government union – Unite – also rejected the pay offer in a consultative ballot.

The offer  is just above the rate of inflation in February (2.8%) according to the government’s preferred consumer prices index (CPI) measure.

However, it is below the broader CPIH rate (3.7%), which also includes owner occupiers’ housing costs, while the Bank of England predicted  in February that the CPI rate would rise to 3.7% over the coming months before falling during the rest of the year.

That projection is clouded in uncertainty due to doubts over the impact of US president Donald Trump’s tariffs on the global economy.

Offer is less than half of unions’ claim

The unions had lodged a claim for 6.5%, which they said was designed to tackle “severe erosion of pay” in local government in Scotland over many years.

For UNISON – 92% of whose voting members backed taking strike action in the consultative ballot – local government committee chair Colette Hunter said: “The last thing anyone wants to do is take strike action.

“But local government workers deserve a fair increase to stop their pay lagging behind inflation and other sectors of the economy.

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Union members’ vote ‘should be wake-up call’ for employers

“This result should be a wake-up call for COSLA. It needs to reward council workers fairly for the essential services they provide and start to reverse years of pay cuts.”

The GMB said 96% of voting members backed a walkout were COSLA’s offer not improved.

“The offer is clearly unacceptable and nowhere close to matching the commitment of council workers, adding pennies to the hourly rate paid to the lowest-paid staff,” said Keir Greenaway, the union’s senior organiser in the public sector.

Both unions warned that a formal ballot for industrial action would follow without improvements in COSLA’s offer.

COSLA warns of ‘damaging strikes in pursuit of unsustainable pay’

However, in response, a COSLA spokesperson said: “Our current offer, which was made before the settlement date, and remains on the table, fully utilises the available funding and represents a balance between making an offer aligned with the current CPI rate of inflation and protecting services and jobs.

“We must be clear that the current offer is not without challenges for councils struggling to balance budgets.

“We implore our unions to properly consult their members on pay offers rather than immediately seeking to escalate to damaging industrial action in pursuit of unsustainable levels of pay that would result in cuts to services and higher taxes.”