THE leader of the country's largest trade union has criticised the Scottish Government's plan to set aside £20million for Indyref2 next year as she warned of widespread strike action if mass jobs losses go ahead.

Tracey Dalling, the Scottish Secretary of Unison, which represents 150,000 workers north of the Border, said it was her view a vote on the constitution was "not a priority" during major spending cutbacks and in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

She is the first union chief to speak out about the proposed referendum spending revealed in plans unveiled by the Finance Secretary Kate Forbes last Tuesday.

Ms Forbes's proposals also set out a swathe of cuts to frontline services intended to head off a projected £3.5 billion spending gap by 2026/27.

Speaking exclusively to The Herald, Ms Dalling was asked if she thought the £20 million set aside by the Scottish Government for its plan to hold a second independence referendum next year, should be a priority.

She replied: "It depends on your political persuasion, I would suggest, whether or not you think £20 million is a good use of money. Democracy costs money, there's no two ways about it, regardless of what kind of democratic process the money is set aside for that.

"But would I consider it to be a priority given everything I am looking at right now? No I wouldn't."

Unison, which represents a wide range of workers including those employed in schools, nurseries and care homes, has estimated that up to 40,000 jobs may be lost over the next four years. The Scottish Government say the figure will be considerably less and that there will be no compulsory redundancies.

Ms Dalling, who became the first woman to become Unison's Scottish Secretary in March, said her trade union and others would be trying to persuade the Scottish Government to withdraw the job cuts and would consider strike action as an "ultimate step" should ministers fail to back down.

"I think they need to be making a serious statement to the UK Government about what Scotland's priorities are. And I think they need to revisit what is a priority for your average working person and that is a job," she said.

"We will be making all sorts of representation to the Scottish Government about their proposals alongside most of the other trade unions.

"I don't think there is a single organisation out there, that represents workers in the public sector, that are saying this is in any way acceptable. There needs to be a revisit of these proposals which need to be completely reworked."

Asked about industrial action, she added: "There is a very distinct possibility....There is a general trajectory towards industrial action across the whole piece, not just in Scotland but within the UK, and if cuts like this come to pass then I think people will take the ultimate step, and say: "Enough is enough, I am taking industrial action. It is the only way to stop this.'"

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has defended the £20 million set aside for Indyref2 next year saying the spending review set out "the very heavy price" that people in Scotland are paying for Westminster decisions. She argued giving Scots "the opportunity to choose a better future is, and will be, a really good investment." 

Ms Forbes told MSPs on Tuesday savings would be made through a “reshape and refocus” of the public sector, including a shrinking of the workforce down to pre-pandemic levels. The plans include cuts to education, policing, the courts, community justice, social work, libraries and other local government services.

However, with inflation at a 40 year high of 9 per cent, she insisted her blueprint - which also included an increase to welfare benefits such as the Scottish Child Payment - focused on supporting people on the lowest incomes, tackling child poverty and alleviating the cost-of-living crisis for households.

Prior to the EU referendum in 2016, 410,000 people were employed full time in Scotland's public sector, with the figure rising to 420,000 at the start of the pandemic in 2019/20 and 448,000 in the current year, according to figures outlined in the resource spending review.

The document said it would be the aim to return the total size of the devolved public sector workforce to around pre-Covid levels by 2026-27, "through effective vacancy and recruitment management".

Ms Dalling said many of those losing their jobs, particularly in rural areas, may struggle to find new employment and that "depriving parents of work" would force many more children into poverty.

"The £25 per week Scottish Child Payment will have to go a lot further than it presently does and potentially 30,000 to 40,000 more people will be queuing up looking for it too. I think it is absolutely inevitable these plans will make child poverty worse," she said.

"If 30,000 to 40,000 job losses had been announced in some industry in Scotland the Scottish Government would have poured all over that like a rash - and rightly so - to prevent the erosion of jobs available in that particular area of Scotland.

"And yet they have absolutely set out a campaign to reduce 30,000 to 40,000 jobs in the country - it's scandalous. Our communities won't cope, our children will suffer."

She added: "My absolute priority is the people who I represent. They are struggling to put food on the table, whether to switch on the lights, whether they can run their car.

"These are really really stark choices that the Scottish Government need to make. But there are areas of spending which probably could be looked at."

Speaking at First Minister's Questions in Holyrood on Wednesday, Ms Sturgeon blamed decisions by Conservative ministers for the financial challenges facing Scotland.

"As a result of United Kingdom Government decisions, our budget this year has been cut by more than 5 per cent in real terms, and growth in our budget over the next four years will be constrained to 2 per cent, while inflation is close to 10 per cent. Of course, thanks to the folly of Brexit, inflation is higher in the UK than it is in any other G7 country," she said.

"I think that spending £20 million—0.05 per cent, or one half of one tenth of 1 per cent, of the entire Scottish Government budget—to give the people of this country the opportunity to choose a better future is, and will be, a really good investment."