Union warns pay dispute with Cosla could go on 'beyond the winter'

From Wednesday, staff at 13 local authorities, including Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen, will join those in Edinburgh and strike as unions ratchet up the pressure in their pay dispute.

Trade unions were offered a 5% pay rise by Cosla, the body representing local government, but despite “productive” talks a deal was not reached. 

Unite’s industrial officer Wendy Dunsmore said the “dispute will continue to escalate to a point where it could now go beyond the winter, causing months of massive nationwide disruption”.

She continued: “It’s a sad indictment that council workers in Scotland are being offered substantially less than their counterparts in England. 

READ MORE: What it's like in Edinburgh as rubbish piles up on day five of bin worker strikes

“The cold hard reality is that inflation and energy costs are soaring – and they are predicted to rise even higher.”

Nicola Sturgeon has previously said that she hoped the 5% pay offer would end the “disruption” in Scotland's capital.

Meanwhile, former Edinburgh council leader Adam McVey slammed the Labour-led administration in the city for being “asleep at the wheel” as the strikes left the capital in a “shameful” state. 

Dunsmore put the blame “at the doors of Cosla and the Scottish Government,” although on Tuesday the First Minister said Holyrood did not have a “bottomless pit of money” and insisted she wanted to “see the fairest possible pay deal delivered to public sector workers in very difficult times”.

Sturgeon added that the “Scottish Government has a finite budget” and has already given councils £140 million “to help fund a fair pay deal”. 

Council leader Cammy Day said he was “disappointed” a deal was not reached. 

He said: “This is a national crisis playing out in Edinburgh’s streets during our busiest and most important time of the year. 

“And while this clearly shows the value of our waste teams’ work, it also demonstrates a national failure to find an acceptable resolution.”

Edinburgh’s waste workers in Unite are set to strike until August 30, while in a further 13 council areas industrial action will continue until August 31. 

Unison and GMB will see members walk out between August 26 and 29 and September 7 to 10.

Unison Scotland’s head of local government Johanna Baxter has called for an “urgent intervention” from Deputy First Minister John Swinney to help reach an agreement. 

Elsewhere, GMB Scotland’s senior organiser Keir Greenaway said Cosla would have to do “so much better” when they meet on Friday, and warned that if concerns were not addressed, “strikes will continue, and they will grow”.

He added: “Our members are angry about the lack of value being shown to them by political leaders and scared about the prospect of pay that doesn’t confront a cost of living crisis that’s getting worse by the week.”

READ MORE: School and nursery staff set to go on strike in September over pay dispute

Under the current deal, the lowest paid council staff would see salaries raised to £10.50 an hour. 

Unite said that, for more than half of council workers, Cosla’s offer represented a rise of between £900 to £1250.

Elsewhere, as part of the union’s pay dispute with Cosla, school and nursery staff in nine council areas are set to go on strike next month. 

Unison and GMB said members will walk out between September 6 and 8, a move which will see schools, early years centres and nurseries disrupted in Aberdeenshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, Orkney, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Stirling.