Angry council staff move to strike over pay-freeze diktat

Published on Friday 3 September 2010 16:12

A WINTER of unrest has taken a step closer after members of the largest council union, Unison, voted to explore taking industrial action over the imposition of a three-year pay deal.

Unison delegates yesterday voted to look into a range of options including strike action when they met to discuss the pay-deal at an angry meeting in Glasgow.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) imposed the deal a week ago, which will see local authority workers take a pay freeze until 2013 after a small rise this year.

Cosla argued that unions had to recognise the unprecedented economic conditions and accept the deal, which affects around 150,000 staff, as councils prepare for a massive squeeze on public spending.

Cosla said councils had no option other than to impose a pay deal to give them certainty for financial planning and budget management.

Before the deal was imposed, workers turned down a more generous offer that would have seen staff benefit from a 1 per cent rise this year, no increase in 2011/12 and a 0.5 per cent rise in 2012/13,

The Cosla deal means council staff will get a rise of 0.65 per cent this year, followed by a two-year freeze.

Unions claimed they had wanted to negotiate but were shocked when the offer was withdrawn and a less generous deal imposed last week. After yesterday's meeting, Stephanie Herd, the chair of Unison's Scottish Local Government Committee, indicated that industrial action was on the agenda.

She added that Unison would be meeting with the two other local authority unions GMB and Unite in order to thrash out a common strategy.

"We had delegates from the whole of Scotland, who voted with a healthy majority for a series of different approaches," Ms Herd said.

"One approach will be developing a political communications strategy. Another is looking at an industrial action strategy.

"We will meet with the GMB and Unite early next week and hopefully we will then get a common position on the way forward.

"We will debate all the options. We are not ruling out anything and that includes industrial action.

"Obviously we are very disappointed by the outcome of the leaders' meeting. For them to come back with a lesser offer is quite unacceptable.

"It has made our members extremely angry and we need to make a robust response. Industrial action is certainly an option."

Unison plans to register its objection with the Scottish Joint Council, the national bargaining body for the determination of local government pay for all employees other than teachers.

"We want to go through the proper machinery," Ms Herd said.

The union said is also considering referring the matter to ACAS, the body charged with resolving disputes over pay and condition.

"We will also be talking to members about what local action they want to take.All options are on the table."

Industrial action could involve bin men, classroom assistants and social workers raising fears of a winter with schools closed, uncollected rubbish and disruption to local services.