MINISTERS have been warned that nearly £300m of public money is needed to avoid a council worker strike that threatens to shut Scottish schools next month.
It comes as thousands of key council workers in education and early years services in ten council areas who are members of the union Unite have voted for industrial action that is expected to shut schools as early as September.
Unite has said negotiations on Wednesday to batter out an agreement over pay were a "waste of time" - as there was no improvement on the 5% pay offer.
They say that just £360m has been found to fund the pay deal - but that was £300m short of what was offered last year to resolve the dispute that led to piles of rubbish build up in city centres as waste workers went on strike.
Pay bargaining deals have been based on the Retail Price Index measure of consumer price inflation - which includes mortgage interest payments - at the January of each year. Last year it was sitting at 7.8%, this year it was at 13.4%.
Thousands of key council workers are now set to take targeted industrial action the summer break which is expected to close schools. Those involved in the dispute includes janitors, cleaners, caterers, classroom assistants and administrative staff.
The 10 councils set to be impacted by Unite's industrial action are: Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Dundee, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Fife, Glasgow City, Inverclyde and Orkney.
The latest development in the escalating pay dispute follows talks with the council representative group, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’ (COSLA) last week where no improved pay offer was put on the table.
Unite has said that the First Minister, Humza Yousaf should directly intervene in the pay dispute over the collapsed in talks.
COSLA has said it had made a "strong" offer that showed the value it placed on its staff.
The trade union has repeatedly criticised the council representative group COSLA for failing to approach the Scottish Government to financially support a fairer pay offer for council workers, saying that both bodies are in danger of repeating the ‘same mistakes’ of last summer’s pay dispute.
Strike action that led to local authorities notifying parents that schools would be shut was only averted last year a matter of days before the closures were due to take place after more money to pay staff was found. Some local authorities had already told parents not to expect schools to be open.
Union sources said COSLA then increased the pay pot for Scotland's 250,000 local authority workers from around £400m to over £600m allowing the lowest paid staff to get a pay increase of around 10 to 11% following the intervention of then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
Graham McNab, Unite industrial officer, said: "The meeting on Wednesday was a waste of time. It was like Groundhog Day. There was nothing there and it was the same rhetoric.
He said the amount of money on the table to be given to fund the pay deal was nearly £300m less than was available last year - when Ms Sturgeon intervened to find more money to stave off an escalation of strikes.
"If they can make the same offer as last year.. we can take it back to staff. But they haven't," he said.
"The three unions offered to go with council leaders of COSLA to approach the Scottish Government to provide additional funding to allow COSLA to make an improved pay offer. That was rejected. That is what angered the unions to take action. That was when we decided enough was enough and we needed to start taking strike action."
He said that in each council area over 50% of their members voted and around 90% voted to support industrial action.
The union says it is particularly keen to see a a further pay uplift to lower paid workers who are paid under £25,000.
The 5% pay offer was originally rejected by 84% in a consultative ballot held by Unite in May.
The largest local government union Unison confirmed it had launched an industrial action ballot of 30,000 school staff, last week.
The vote will close on August 25 and, if staff vote for strike action.
Unison leaders say a strike that would close schools across Scotland would come after the schools break but before the October holidays.
Some 87% rejected the local government pay deal in a consultative ballot of over 80,000 Unison local government workers with 90% of those voting in favour of taking some form of action up to and including strike action.
Union members in Glasgow City Council parking services began two days of strikes on Thursday hitting the UCI Cycling World Championships after rejecting the council pay offer.
It meant that those visiting the city for the championships were expected to be faced with demonstrations from council parking staff out on strike in a row about pay.
It was feared the strike could mean parked cars block the route of road races while it was feared events at Glasgow’s velodrome would be affected.
Last year's dispute saw the spectre of schools and nurseries shutting as industrial action was due to spread to thousands of education staff in 12 council areas.
It was resolved just four days before the first school strikes were to begin and after local authorities had already told parents that children would have to remain at home.
It raised questions about how the pay rise was able to be financed after then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the then Deputy First Minister John Swinney insisted there was "no more money".
Last year, council body COSLA initially offered workers 2% then 3.5% and then 5% – all rejected outright by unions - before a revised offer in September was tabled.
Flashback to the bin staff strike of last year
It meant the lowest paid would get a flat rate offer of £2,000 - a pay rise worth around 10 to 11%.
The development came after some ten hours of a summit meeting chaired by Nicola Sturgeon in the wake of a near two-week bins strike.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Local government pay negotiations are a matter for local authorities as employers and unions. The Scottish Government and COSLA have committed to respect this negotiating arrangement as part of the Verity House Agreement.
“Despite UK Government cuts, the Scottish Government has provided a further £155m to support a meaningful pay rise for local government workers, which has been taken into account in the pay offer already made by COSLA.
“The Scottish Government urges all the parties involved to work together constructively and reach an agreement which is fair for the workforce and affordable for employers.”
What is the pay offer?
A 5% rise for staff on all spinal column points on the local government pay scale from 1 April 2023.
Further rises of 45p an hour for the lowest paid staff (those on spinal column points 2-18), and 2.5% for those on points 19-43, from 1 January 2024.
An additional 1.5% rise, from 1 January 2024, for those on points 44-64, who currently earn roughly £28,000 – £38,000.
An extra rise, from 1 January next year, of 1% for those on points 65 and above, a group that includes most social workers.
Overall, staff would receive 5.51% more on average in 2023-24 than 2022-23 and their salaries would be 7.02% higher at the end of the financial year than at the start.
For a social worker earning £38,585, their end of year salary would be 6.05% higher (around £41,900).
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