PUBLIC services union Unison has warned that it is targetting the shutting of schools as it confirms a strike ballot over pay which could seen tens of thousands of local authority workers down tools.

Unison is to ballot 25,000 school staff, early years and waste and recycling workers for strike over pay on Friday after it said that Kate Forbes refused and offer of last-ditch talks.

GMB Scotland and Unite have also indicated that they are planning ballots.

The development came as negotiators with the train drivers union Aslef reached an agreement with nationalised ScotRail on a 5% pay deal - up from an original 2.2%, similar to that offered to public sector staff.

Unison has recommended the workforce vote 'yes' to strike action as the "only way left" to move the position of the councils body, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’ (COSLA).

Unison said: "They intend to shut schools across Scotland when children return after the school summer break."

It came after Unison said a last-ditch attempt to avert industrial action was made in a letter to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, and finance secretary Kate Forbes failed. The union requested that they meet with the trade unions to discuss the funding for local authorities to improve the pay offer.

The Herald:

Ms Forbes wrote to UNISON saying "it would not be appropriate to interfere in these negotiations, given their devolved nature" and that "it is therefore for you to negotiate with COSLA". It also "respectfully declined the tripartite meeting being proposed by COSLA".

Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland head of local government said: “Local government workers have been offered a miserly 2%. With inflation at a 40-year high this goes nowhere near compensating them for the cost-of-living crisis or the loss in the value of their pay following real terms pay cuts over a decade of austerity. This comes on the back of the Scottish government announcing cuts to public services that Margaret Thatcher would be proud of, in their recent spending review.”

“The fact they will not sit down with COSLA and the trade unions to try and find a solution is a kick in the teeth to all local government workers. They have forgotten already who was educating our children, cleaning our communities, caring for our vulnerable and burying our dead throughout the pandemic. Local government workers keep society running. We have no option left and will ballot 25,000 school, nursery and waste and recycling workers tomorrow.”

The Herald:

The public services union Unison had previously confirmed an indicative ballot of council workers had revealed an “incredible” 89.8% voted in favour of taking industrial action up to and including strike action over an “unacceptable” pay offer.

Trade unions representing 200,000 local government workers across Scotland have already written to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) – which acts as an employers’ association – to say that councils have failed to come up with an acceptable pay offer for workers whose pay has been “held down for too many years”.

A potentially embarrassing strike over last year’s pay claim involving thousands of binmen, fleet maintenance, school cleaning, school janitorial and recycling was due to take place between November 8 and 12, as Glasgow was hosting COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference.

But, on the eve of the conference, and after more than 10 months of negotiations, money was found for an improved pay offer that was accepted.

Before that, the unions representing local government workers had written to the Scottish Government condemning its decision not to provide additional funding to Cosla to improve the local authorities’ pay offer.

The issue is around a proposed 2% pay increase with a 20p rise in the minimum hourly wage at £9.98 – 8p more than the real Living Wage – while inflation is running at 7%. There was concern the proposed rise was inequitably benefitting higher paid workers while the 50% who earn less than £25,000 a year were losing out.

The union said those earning over £40,000 a year –12% of the local government workforce – would get an increase of more than £800 a year, while some will get as much as £2,000 more. It said those who earn below £25,000 would get a pay increase of just about £500.

Unison officials say that after years of below inflation pay awards, council workers should be given a one-year £3,000 flat rate pay rise for the next financial year, and for the minimum rate of pay to be increased to £12 per hour.