Scotland’s largest local government union is considering widening a strike ballot to more than 90,000 council staff in a long-running dispute over pay.
Unison has announced it may broaden its strike ballot to all of the council workers it represents.
It comes as 86% of Unison members rejected a pay offer from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) last week.
The ballot consisted of waste, recycling and street cleaning staff, as well as those working in schools and the early years sector.
However, Unison bosses are now considering broadening the ballot to all of its members employed by Scottish councils.
The current pay offer from Cosla is an hourly increase of either 67p or a 3.6% wage rise, with whichever automatically applied to an employee’s wages depending on what is higher.
Unison said this falls short of expectations, stating there has been a 25% real-terms pay cut over the last 14 years.
It comes as fellow union members at GMB and Unite accepted the offer last week.
Unison Scotland local government committee chair Colette Hunter said: “Thousands of council workers have overwhelmingly rejected Cosla’s pay offer.
“They are demanding a fair increase to prevent their pay from consistently lagging behind and to ensure their wage rise aligns with other sectors of the economy.
“They are outraged that the current offer falls significantly short of their pay claim, and is well below the 5.5% being offered to their NHS colleagues.”
Unison currently has strike mandates in 13 Scottish councils, as well as one for Cireco – a specialist arms-length waste management company.
It also has five mandates for strike action in schools and early years.
Unison Scotland local government lead David O’Connor said: “Council staff provide essential services that keep society running. They are simply asking for a fair and equitable pay increase.
“Councils are currently in crisis. They face significant recruitment challenges as workers are expected to do more with fewer resources and lower wages.
“This situation places immense pressure on both the workers and the services they deliver.
“The only viable solution is to grant these dedicated staff the pay rise they rightfully deserve.”
Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “This is very disappointing from Unison.
“While this government fully respects the decision by Unison members to reject the offer, no one’s interests will be served by industrial action, least of all Unison members.
“The pay offer put to local government workers is better than that made to local government workers in the rest of the UK.
“Most workers will receive an increase of more than 4%.
“The lowest paid workers, including Unison members, will receive an increase of 5.62%, which is equivalent to £1,292 a year or nearly £25 per week.
“This delivers what GMB, Unite and Unison asked for from councils at the end of July.
“This is a fair and strong pay offer.
“There is no more money available to offer local government workers.
“I would urge Unison members to reconsider the offer and accept it, just as a majority of Unite and GMB members have done.
“There is a risk that the longer Unison holds out for a better pay offer that we simply cannot afford to support, the longer all local government employees may have to wait to receive their backdated pay award.
“I don’t think any of us want that to happen.
“I know that Cosla will continue to make progress with all three unions to try and break this logjam.”
Cosla has been contacted for comment.
