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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Paul Hutcheon

Bin strikes in Scotland called off after GMB union agrees pay deal for council workers

Further bin strikes have been averted after council workers accepted a revised pay offer.

Members of the GMB trade union voted to accept a deal put on the table after frantic talks that included the Scottish Government.

Rubbish piled high on Scottish streets in August after refuse staff in the GMB, Unite and Unison unions rejected a pay offer from council chiefs.

Extra money from the Scottish Government led to a revised offer being tabled, central to which was £1,900 for workers earning less than £39,000.

The unions suspended strike action, which was also to include school staff, and consulted their members.

Following the close of a two-week consultative ballot of its 20,000 plus membership across Scottish local government, workers in the GMB backed the offer.

GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Keir Greenaway said: "Our members have accepted the offer negotiated by unions and the First Minister by a clear majority.

"We are now calling on councils to ensure this consolidated increase is put into the pay and conditions of members as soon as possible, because the cost-of-living crisis hasn’t gone away.

“This must also be a point of reflection rather than relief for political leaders. Tens of thousands of low-paid workers were kept waiting months for movement on a decent pay offer in the grip of soaring inflation and eye-watering energy bills. That’s unacceptable and can’t be repeated next year.

“GMB is clear that after years of cuts to pay and services, this must be the start of the story in the fight for proper value of our key workers, because this period of intense economic pressure is going to last years and not months."

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