So what Scots still laughingly call the summer is over and winter is coming.
The nights are drawing in, the leaves are turning, Strictly has started and a council pay deal is still under discussion.
A rise workers should have received in April was on the agenda again yesterday when unions met Cosla, representing Scotland’s local authorities, and Finance Secretary Shona Robison.
The merry-go-round of talks has been birling in circles for most of the year while our members have waited with escalating frustration for the music to stop.
The go-slow-and-stop negotiations make glaciers look a little hasty and not only betray the public sector staff delivering council services but every Scot relying on them.
Readers could be forgiven for losing track during the endless mind-numbing months of talks and offers, strike votes and partial agreement but, finally, a deal is on the table that members of two of the biggest public sector unions have accepted while members of a third have not.
The shape of this deal is what all three unions asked for; above inflation and weighted towards those frontline workers often on the lowest pay bands.
It isn’t perfect but seems, on balance, fair and the best available through negotiation. Certainly, our members overwhelmingly voted to accept it.
So why are they still waiting for their money? Of course, other unions are absolutely entitled to reject the deal, to continue negotiations, ballot for industrial action, and take whatever steps they believe might secure something better.
In the meantime, however, our members - most of them actually delivering services on the frontline - should not be asked to wait a moment longer.
The offer under discussion will mean £1,292 more for full-time workers so today, right now, six months after the rise was due, they are already owed at least £600. In total, £150 million is now owed to council staff to cover the backdated pay rise.
Next month will bring 10% rises in energy prices while the millions of pounds owed to our members, that is badly needed by our members, and that should be immediately paid to our members, remains in limbo. It must not stay there a day longer.
This year’s protracted pay negotiations have been a variation on a familiar theme. The councils make an offer saying there is no more money before unions reject it and urge them to seek Scottish Government support.
They make another offer saying there is no more money before unions reject it and urge them to seek Scottish Government support.
Months pass before, eventually, finally, just days before workers are due to begin hugely disruptive industrial action, councils seek Scottish Government support and an offer is made finally worth taking to our members.
The Scottish Government insisted there really is no more money yesterday but, incredibly, council leaders, who meet tomorrow, might still withhold a pay rise our members have already accepted.
It cannot go on. Just because these negotiations have become a pantomime doesn’t mean they should drag on to Christmas.
Keir Greenaway is GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services
Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk
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