School and early years staff who are members of UNISON and the GMB will strike on 6, 7 and 8 September, the trade unions announced, after talks with council body COSLA failed to reach an agreement.
The councils notified for schools and early years strike action are Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, Orkney, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire.
School and early years staff will join waste and recycling staff who have already started strike action.
UNISON said 13,000 of its members will strike across Scotland, of whom around 12,000 will be school and early years workers. The union said this would represent the largest strike among council workers since the Trade Union Act was introduced in 2016.
Local authorities had initially proposed a 3.5 per cent increase before increasing their offer to 5 per cent, with the minimum hourly rate to be raised to £10.50.
Johanna Baxter, UNISON Scotland head of local government, said, ‘Inflation is around 10 per cent and rising. School and early years workers are struggling as fuel, food and household bills go through the roof. The latest pay offer is a real terms pay cut and falls far short of the offer made to council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
‘A flat-rate increase was a key element of our pay claim but the amount on offer also needs to increase. Warm words don’t pay bills and we need the Scottish government and COSLA to come up with a significantly improved financial package if widespread disruption is going to be averted.’
Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser, added, ‘Scotland’s political leaders are failing to understand that the biggest cost of living crisis in 40 years is turning into a catastrophe for the lowest paid key workers.
‘Workers are angry and scared – angry at the total lack of value they’ve been shown and scared about what the winter will bring – and the strike actions are a direct response to that political failure.
‘GMB members are not prepared to accept working poverty as an inevitability, even if Scotland’s political leaders are, and unless an improved offer that does more for the lowest paid is tabled then these strikes will continue.’
COSLA said its latest offer was the ‘highest offer made in over a decade’.
COSLA resources spokesperson, Councillor Katie Hagmann, said, ‘The reality of this new offer is that the lowest paid 12 per cent of our workforce will get more than a 5 per cent increase meaning that those on the Scottish Local Government Living Wage will see an overall 7.36 per cent increase. This amounts to one of, if not the best offer in decades for Scottish Local Government workers during some of the most trying times for councils to continue to deliver the everyday essential services that our communities rely on.
‘It is an offer made in good faith, which as far as we can in the current circumstances, tries to ensure that our lowest paid workers are protected from the cost of living crisis, raising the minimum hourly rate for the lowest paid within the workforce to £10.50 per hour. It seeks, as far as possible, to ensure sustainable long term secure employment. On that basis we look forward to continuing constructive discussions with our trade union partners.’
