Unison members at 13 council areas vote to reject Cosla pay deal
It means waste and cleansing staff could go on strike if a new deal can't be reached
Last updated 13th Sep 2024
The threat of strike action among waste and cleansing workers in 13 local authority areas across Scotland is back on, after members of the country’s largest local government union voted to reject their latest pay offer.
Unison members voted by 86% against accepting the deal from Cosla, which would have seen staff receive an hourly uplift of 67p, or a 3.6% wage rise, whichever is highest.
It means bins could overflow and rubbish pile high on the streets in Clackmannanshire, Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Fife, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Midlothian, North Lanarkshire, Perth & Kinross, South Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Lothian.
Unison members at Cireco, an arms-length waste management specialist company, have also voted to reject the deal.
Another union has voted to accept the pay deal
The news comes just days after members of the GMB union voted to accept Cosla’s offer.
Unite, the other union at the centre of the pay dispute, has yet to confirm how members have voted.
A letter from Cosla to Unison said: "The £0.67 increase to the hourly rate is equivalent to a £1,292 increase in annual salary for a full-time worker with a 37-hour working week."
The union said it "falls short of expectations" given the 25% real-terms pay cut over the past 14 years, and that "council workers in Scotland are angry their pay offer is not in line with other public service workers, many of whom have been given 5.5% pay rises".
The union's local government committee, made up of senior officials from across Scotland, will discuss next steps soon.
Unison Scotland local government committee chair, Colette Hunter, said: "Cosla and the Scottish Government need to understand the anger among council staff.
"The last thing anyone wants is to go on strike"
"They want a fair increase to stop their pay consistently falling behind, and for their wage increase to be in line with other areas of the economy. The last thing anyone wants to do is go on strike, but local government workers deserve better.
"This result must be a wake-up call and get the employers and Government to invest in local services and the staff who deliver them."
Unison Scotland co-lead for local government, David O'Connor, said: "Councils are in crisis. They struggle to recruit because workers are expected to deliver even more with fewer staff and lower wages.
"That puts workers and the services they provide under intolerable pressure. It's unsustainable it can't go on."
"The absolute limit of affordability"
A Cosla spokesperson said: "We are deeply disappointed Unison have rejected our latest strong, above inflation, pay offer. This is the absolute limit of affordability for local government and exhausts all available funding from Scottish Government.
"Local government have a responsibility to ensure sustainable service delivery for communities. We are clear that increasing the value of any pay offer would have serious consequences. We remain concerned that Unison's expectations cannot be met without further unpalatable difficult decisions.
"We are aware that communities will be concerned about the potential impact of industrial action on the most vulnerable. We would urge Unison to reconsider our strong offer which has an overall value of 4.27%."
The Scottish Government has been contacted for comment.