School staff in four Scottish council areas have announced plans to strike on Wednesday 1 November.
Unison members this week rejected a pay deal that was accepted by other unions and will walk out in Glasgow, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde.
The union announced nearly 90 per cent of those balloted voted to reject the most recent pay deal, which Unite and the GMB both accepted on Tuesday.
The strike is part of a “rolling programme of action”, Unison said, with further dates in other councils to be announced in the coming weeks.
It is not yet clear how many schools will be impacted by the strike.
Unison’s new strike date follows three days of industrial action held last month, which shut many schools and nurseries in Scotland as more than 21,000 people in 24 local authorities, working across catering, cleaning, pupil support, administration and janitorial services, walked out.
Johanna Baxter, head of local government at the union, said the strength of feeling among Unison school staff was “clear for all to see”. She urged local authorities’ body Cosla and the Scottish government “to get back round the negotiating table to explore every avenue to reach a settlement” and to avoid further disruption.
Meanwhile, Mark Ferguson, chair of Unison Scotland, said the current offer from Cosla amounted to “a real-terms pay cut”. He called for “a decent wage rise” and a commitment to implementing a pay rate of £15 per hour for all local government workers.
The revised offer represents a minimum increase of £2,006 for workers on the Scottish local government living wage, and a minimum of £1,929 for those above the rate.
The pay rise will be introduced on 1 April next year based on a 37-hour working week.
The living wage of £10.85 will rise to £11.89 per hour - equivalent to a 9.6 per cent increase.
The offer also means council leaders will establish an advisory group to achieve a minimum of £15 per hour in local government.
Katie Hagmann, Cosla resources spokesperson, said the Unison ballot result and action were “very disappointing given the strength of the offer”, which amounted to a “half a billion-pound pay package”.
She said the offer was “as far as local government can go without impacting service and jobs”.
The councils affected by the planned strike action said they were working on contingency plans, with the spokesperson for Inverclyde Council saying it was “highly likely” that schools and early years centres affected by the previous strike would again be affected by the action planned for 1 November.
