Glasgow school janitors are to take strike action on the date of the Scottish Parliament election in a move which could affect polling places.
It is not yet known whether Glasgow City Council has made contingency plans to ensure the affected schools will open to voters at 7am on May 5.
The walkout by primary school janitors on May 4, 5 and 6 will be the third three-day strike in as many months.
A spokeswoman for Glasgow City Council said officials are “checking the status of all our primary schools on May 5," many of which will be designated as polling places.
More than 130 staff are in a stand-off with employer Cordia over Working Context and Demands (WCD) payments.
Some Cordia employees are allocated points for duties which involve physical demand, working outdoors or dealing with unpleasant conditions.
If enough points are accumulated, additional WCD rates are triggered which range from £500 to £1000 a year.
But primary school janitors are not currently entitled to the pensionable payments and Unison members began industrial action on January 19 by refusing to carry out some duties.
They then went on strike from March 11 to 13 and from April 20 to 22.
Unison Glasgow branch secretary Brian Smith said public protests will be held at Cordia’s headquarters in Borron Street on May 4 from 8am.
There will also be a protest at Glasgow City Chambers on May 4 from 12:30pm.
In an email to members Mr Smith said: “You are encouraged to get along to and show your support.”
Branch officer Sam Macartney has previously accused Cordia of “refusing to even meet these hard working janitors and their trade union”.
He added: “Unison is very clear that school janitors meet the criteria to be awarded this payment.”
A Cordia spokesman responded by insisting internal procedures led to a rejection of Unison’s claim for WCD payments for janitors.
The spokesman added: “Cordia has completely exhausted all internal processes after negotiations with Unison and is not required to convene a meeting to further negotiate when at this stage, there is no possibility of a settlement.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel