PARENTS have started to be told that secondary schools, primary schools and early years facilities will be shut next week due to the unresolved council pay row.
It comes as the First Minister was locked in talks for hours with union leaders in a bid to end the council workers’ strike “crisis”.
The council pay row was expected to escalate after the Deputy First Minister insisted there is "no more money" to fund pay rises that could end the dispute.
The spectre of schools and nurseries shutting from Tuesday was expected as industrial action spreads to thousands of education staff in 13 council areas.
The First Minister has been chairing since mid-afternoon on Thursday with the discussions taking place as the clean-up gets under way in some of Scotland’s largest councils after a walkout by cleansing department workers.
East Dunbartonshire Council, has said it one of the local authorities scheduled to be hit, having received notice that two trade unions balloted their members and have a mandate for industrial action in relation to the local government pay award for 2022.
The council has told parents that all council-run secondary schools, primary schools and early years facilities will be shut from September 7 to 9 inclusive.
It has also told parents to expect waste disposal issues with a new wave of bin strikes next week.
They were also told that school transport, breakfast clubs and afterschool care provision will also all be impacted and will not operate.
The council said: "Head teachers are currently working with staff to provide home learning activities. These will be issued in due course to parents/carers and will focus on learning packs and online learning resources."
It comes as a new proposal to pay everyone a flat rate based on the over £400m needed to pay Scotland's 250,000 local authority workers a 5% pay rise has been described as "unfair".
Some union leaders say it translated to just over £1400 for each worker - but that means thousands of local government workers will not get the promised 5%.
And it is over £500 short of the £1925 pay rise for 2022-23 that has been offered to local authority staff across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Even that offer, which would see the lowest paid get 10%, has been rejected by some union leaders.
The dispute has seen waste workers belonging to the public services union UNISON Scotland, GMB Scotland and Unite on strike in 25 of Scotland's 32 local authorities.
A new wave of waste services staff stoppages is is also due to start on Tuesday, with an eight-day strike involving Unite union staff hitting 19 local authorities.
Waste workers who are members of UNISON Scotland and GMB Scotland will begin a four-day stoppage the following day hitting a further six council areas.
Ms Sturgeon has already warned that all options for making more funding available for pay have been “exhausted”.
The Scottish Government says the local government body COSLA’s latest offer would see all council workers receive at least £1,925.
Mr Swinney said the latest offer would see the Scottish Government provide a further one-off £200m over two years – on top of a recurring £140 million previously announced which allowed an uplift of pay rises from an original 2% to 5%.
But the new pay offer means that only those earning over £39,000 would get at least £1,925 with their 5% rise.
Unions say the £200m allows a top up of those local authority workers earning below around £39,000 to get £1,925 - but that it is only a one-off - which means it is not consolidated for further years.
UNISON Scotland say that to give everyone the £1,925 consolidated as a flat rate as offered to local authority staff in the rest of the UK would cost £100m more than is in the £400m pot to pay the 5%. Some £140m of that pot is coming from the Scottish Government and the rest from the local authorities employers.
Hundreds of schools and nurseries expected to closed when as part of the dispute, at least 13 councils will be hit by an schools and early learning staff stoppage between September 6 and 9.
Thousands of staff from all three unions that are in dispute will be taking part in the stoppage in Glasgow and East Renfrewshire.
At least one union will be orchestrating strikes by education workers in eleven other council areas - Orkney, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Inverclyde and East Dunbartonshire.
Unite staff employed by Tayside Contracts who provide catering and janitorial services to schools across Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross councils will also strike.
The first bin strike began in the capital city on August 18 in the midst of festival season, after the unions - the GMB, Unite and Unison - rejected an initial pay offer equivalent to a 3.5% increase.
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Schools and Early Years strike
Unite
September 6-8 (3 days) - East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire.
September 7-9 (3 days) - Angus, Dundee, Tayside Contracts (affecting Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross councils)
UNISON Scotland
September 6-8 (3 days) - Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Orkney, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire.
GMB Scotland
September 6-8 (3 days) - Glasgow and East Renfrewshire.
East Dunbartonshire say they have been also been notified of strike action from two trade unions to run from September 7-9.
.......................................................................................................................
Waste and recycling services strike
Unite
August 18-30: City of Edinburgh
August 24 to 31 (8 days action) - Aberdeen City, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Glasgow, Highland, Inverclyde, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian.
September 6 to 13 September (8 days action) – Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Angus, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow, Highland, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian.
UNISON
August 26 to 29 and September 7 to 10 - Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire.
GMB Scotland
August 26 to 29 and September 7 to 10 - Aberdeen City, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Glasgow, Inverclyde,Highland, Midlothian, Orkney, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Perth and Kinross, North Lanarkshire.
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