Unions have warned that time is running out to avoid strike action by school support staff after rejecting the latest “insulting” pay offer from local government employers.
GMB Scotland has rejected the pay offer put to unions on Wednesday by councils’ umbrella body Cosla, which said it would provide at least a £1,929 increase in annual salary for workers by 1 January 2024.
The offer was dismissed as “far too little, far too late” by the GMB.
The union, which represents more than 21,000 workers across Scotland’s 32 councils, said strikes involving cleaning, janitorial, catering and pupil support staff on 26, 27 and 28 September will now go ahead without a revised offer, and urged ministers to intervene.
More than three-quarters of Scotland’s schools could shut when the industrial action takes place, unions have warned.
Scotland’s biggest public sector union, Unison, also rejected the pay deal, which it claimed was an increase of just £0.01 per hour or 0.17 per cent on the previous offer.
The other major council union, Unite, is still to respond to the new pay offer.
‘Insulting’ pay offer fails to halt strikes
Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services, said the latest offer was “no significant improvement on the previous offer that was overwhelmingly rejected”.
He added: “Strike action is not something our members ever take lightly, but after a long, frustrating process, they have been left with no choice.
“This offer, like the previous offer, does not come close to maintaining the value of their wages as prices rise. It is far too little and far too late.
“Why should local authority workers in Scotland be offered less than in England? Why should they be asked to accept the unacceptable?
“If Cosla does not have the resource or the will to properly protect the wages of some of the country’s most important workers, then the Scottish government needs to intervene, and intervene urgently.”
Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland’s head of local government, said: “It is deeply disappointing that it has taken Cosla five months since our members rejected the initial offer to present such insignificant changes.
“We have made very clear that Cosla must put forward a significantly improved offer to avert mass school strikes. Members of our local government committee this morning described this offer as insulting.”
Cosla said the pay offer currently on the table will cost councils just over £440 million.
Cosla resource spokeswoman Katie Hagmann said the offer was specifically targeted at the lower-paid end of the workforce in a bid to recognise “cost-of-living pressures”, and it would mean the lowest paid would see a 21 per cent increase in their pay over a two-year period.
She said that council leaders had gone “to the absolute limits” of what local government could afford, adding: “The simple fact of the matter is that we have no more money available for pay without real cuts to jobs and services.
“I am disappointed with today’s rejection. However, we will continue to engage as positively as we can with the trade onions, as strike action is in nobody’s interests.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said local government pay negotiations were “a matter for local authorities as employers and unions”.
The spokesperson added that “despite UK government cuts”, the Scottish government had provided “a further £155 million in 2023-24 to support a meaningful pay rise for local government workers, which has been taken into account in the pay offer made by Cosla”.
