SNP braced for £77.5m of 'painful choices' as cuts to fund pay deal to avert bin strikes
SNP ministers are braced for “painful choices” worth more than £77.5 million of cuts to public services after unions suspended bin strikes while workers consider an improved pay offer.
The strike action which threated to pile rubbish on streets across Scotland was called off after union bosses agreed to consider the offer which SNP finance secretary, Shona Robison, insisted was at “the absolute limit of affordability”.
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Hide AdThe Scottish Government has yet to set out where the axe will fall on services, with £77.5m needed to be cut in order to fund the improved pay offer.
Unite the union confirmed that eight days of waste and cleansing services industrial action in 19 local authorities had been suspended - with a ballot to be put to members on a new pay offer made by Cosla, the umbrella organisation for Scottish councils.
The GMB union has also confirmed it would suspend strike action while the new offer is considered. Unison confirmed it would suspend the industrial action while members consider the offer, but starkly recommended that workers turn down the improved deal.
The new offer represents a minimum increase of £1,292 for the lowest paid council workers, which is equivalent to 5.2 per cent for those earning around £25,000. The Scottish local government living wage will also increase by 5.63 per cent.
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Hide AdFirst Minister John Swinney warned of “difficult choices” and said the Scottish Government will have to identify which portfolios to take the money from. Full decisions were yet to be made, he said, with the the scale of the “reductions” to be set out in a statement to Parliament next month. “We’ve had to provide some flexibilities to local government to enable them to improve the offer but we’ve also had to put in some Scottish Government money and that is going to result in some very difficult choices for the Scottish Government because we’re going to have to reduce other programmes to find that money,” he said.
“We do not have any spare money sitting about. We will have to make reductions in other programmes to enable this offer to be made because things are so tight and so tough within the public finances.”
He added: “We will set out to Parliament in due course the changes we are making to the budget to allow that to be the case.
“We’ve identified some sources of the money but we’ve also got to find other resources to afford this particular offer. We do that because we want to protect communities but it will come with implications for the provision of Scottish Government programmes and services.”
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Ms Robison added: “In order to fund the offer, we will have to move money from elsewhere in the budget and reduce funding for other programmes. We are taking on significant, additional financial pressure and have been clear painful choices have had to be made to fund this pay deal.”
Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary, Liz Smith, said: “While there will be relief at the likely last-minute avoidance of strike action, it’s another case of the SNP leaving it until the eleventh hour before they face the consequences of their underfunding of basic council services.
“Time and again, they claim there is no money available, only to find it at the last possible moment after huge disruption.
“Now they have to explain where this funding, which they said was impossible, is coming from, and what is being cut elsewhere to provide it.”
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Hide AdGraham McNab, Unite’s lead negotiator for local government said that the union’s members “should be applauded for standing firm”.
He added: “We believe that the new pay offer is credible. For the first time in years, it will mean all council workers receiving an above inflation increase.”
The industrial action threatened to result in a repeat of two years ago when rubbish was piled high in the streets of the capital during the summer festivals season.
But the GMB union has also suspended strike action while the offer is considered to its members.
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Hide AdKeir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services, said the offer was “a significant improvement on what came before”.
He added: “It is better than that offered to council staff in England and Wales, would mean every worker receives a rise higher than the retail price index and, importantly, is weighted to ensure frontline workers gain most.
“It should never have got to this stage, however, and Scotland’s council leaders have again shown an absolute lack of urgency or sense of realism.
“For months, we have been forced to waste time discussing a series of low-ball offers when it was already clear the Scottish Government needed to be at the table.”
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Hide AdA minimum increase of 67 pence an hour or 3.6 per cent, whichever is better, will be applied to council workers if the offer is accepted - the equivalent of an average 4.24 per cent increase for a one year period between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
The Cosla offer now lifts the minimum pay increase above the offer made to council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by the National Joint Council (NJC), which was a red line for Unite in Scotland.
The improved offer came after a special Cosla leaders meeting on Friday where it was agreed that “additional funding” found by Scottish ministers would be used to negotiate with trade unions.
Andrew McRae, Federation for Small Businesses Scotland policy chair, said: “Small business owners up and down the country will breathe a sigh of relief, not least in Edinburgh and Glasgow where many vividly remember piles of stinking rubbish driving customers away from their doors during the last bin strike two years ago.
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Hide Ad“The efforts of politicians and the unions to find a compromise to settle this dispute without a repeat of such damaging disruption will not go unnoticed.
“The threat of industrial action will only be lifted entirely when members off all three unions involved agree to what is on offer, until then tens of thousands of local businesses will be keeping their fingers tightly crossed.”
Cosla had requested that strike action is suspended while the offer of an overall rise of 4.27 per cent is considered by unions. The organisation stressed that unions have been made aware of council leaders’ concerns that the additional funding may be at risk if the industrial action proceeds.
Cosla resources spokesperson, Katie Hagmann, said: “I am heartened to hear that Unison, Unite and GMB have all agreed to take our latest strong offer to their membership for consideration and to suspend strike action while this is considered.
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Hide Ad“Intense but constructive discussions between Cosla, trade unions and the Scottish Government in recent weeks have resulted in additional Scottish Government funding. This has allowed us to make an improved offer without further risk to our vital council jobs and frontline services.
“This is a positive and welcome outcome, and I thank everyone involved for their valuable input.”
She added: “The offer directly reflects what trade unions have asked for with a greater increase for the lowest paid workers who would receive £1,292 or 5.63 per cent.
“We are hopeful that this good offer, which is better than offers made to local government workers in the rest of the UK, will be accepted.
“We strongly urge all council employees who are eligible to vote to use this opportunity to accept the offer and secure a speedy settlement and pay uplift.”
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