GMB Scotland members have voted in favour of a new pay offer that will cancel planned strikes among cleansing workers.

The union was one of three which had planned to walk out but 78 percent of members instead voted to back the deal, which offers up to 5.6% of a rise for frontline staff. With the offer being accepted, GMB have warned ministers that they can’t blame public service pay deals for spending cuts.  

They also warned that the threat of imminent strike action shouldn’t be what it takes to deliver an acceptable pay rise to workers. The offer from Cosla, representing Scotland’s councils, was made just days before the start of the strikes in waste and cleansing earlier this month.

GMB Scotland’s senior organiser in public services, confirmed the industrial action, suspended during the vote, would now not go ahead at all.

He believes it was right that the offer, which will deliver a minimum rise of 3.6% for all grades, had been weighted to ensure full-time frontline staff get a rise of £1292, but criticised needless delays.

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Greenaway said: “Council leaders’ lack of urgency and stubborn refusal to ask the Scottish Government for support meant negotiations and uncertainty went on far longer than necessary.

“It should not take imminent strike action to deliver a fair offer but, while it came too late, the deal was above inflation for all workers and weighted to benefit frontline staff most.

“That was what the unions asked for and, given that, it is no surprise our members accepted it.”

GMB Scotland has criticised the Scottish Government, however, after ministers froze non-essential spending within 24 hours of the offer being made before warning of more cuts this week.

Greenaway said: “Ministers implying a fair pay offer for our members means cuts to spending are only diverting attention from the real cause of the crisis in our public services.

“We have endured more than a decade of cuts not because of staff being paid fairly but because our governments, at Westminster and Holyrood, have failed to properly fund the public sector.

“Government is about choices but, when our public services are struggling to recruit and retain skilled staff, paying council staff fairly is not part of the problem but part of the solution.”