Council staff are on a collision course with local authority bosses as they prepare to vote on strike action over pay.
The Unison trade union believe members are “worth more” than a revised management offer of £850 – increased by £50 – to staff earning less than £25,000.
A ballot on industrial action will open on Wednesday.
Should members vote in favour then council staff, including school cleaners, caterers, janitors and workers in waste and recycling services, will walk out.
J’an Andrews, the local branch secretary said: “Unison Dumfries and Galloway will encourage local members to vote yes for the strike action in the forthcoming ballot.
“I feel it’s shocking that COSLA offered a further increase of £50 – 97p per week.”
And Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland’s head of local government, said: “We’ve all relied on council staff to keep our communities clean and safe, protect the most vulnerable and to work in our schools throughout successive lockdowns to allow others to work.
“Without these workers going above and beyond to keep services running over the past year their colleagues in the NHS would have been left without childcare, our mortuaries would have been overwhelmed, our children would have been left without an education and our elderly would have been left without care.
“Yet to date they have received no reward or recognition of their efforts at all. It’s simply not good enough – our council staff are worth more.”
Unison believes a decade of cuts and the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in increased stress among staff.
Pressure is now mounting on the COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) to provide an improved offer.
COSLA leaders are meeting again today to discuss the situation.
A spokesperson for the agency said: “We appreciate everything that local government workers have been doing, and continue to do, to support people and communities during the pandemic and as we begin to recover. We continue with on-going constructive negotiations.”
Talks broke down between Unison and COSLA in May when the trade union rejected a “dismal” pay offer of up to £600 for all employees earning up to £25,000.
The offer was then upped to £800 before the latest one of £850 which was also turned down.
“Despite the pandemic exerting unprecedented pressures on our budget, the 2021-22 local government finance settlement of £11.7 billion includes an additional £375.6 million, or 3.5 per cent, for day-to-day revenue spending. In addition, the value of our overall Covid-19 support package for councils now totals more than £1.5 billion. The Scottish Government is not involved in the local government pay negotiations. Pay settlements for council workers (excluding teachers) are a matter for COSLA and are determined through negotiations at the Scottish Joint Committee (SJC).
“The Scottish Government is not a member of the SJC and council pay is therefore not a matter it can intervene in. It is for trade union colleagues to reach a negotiated settlement with COSLA.”
