SCOTLAND’S largest trade union has warned it will seek "significant" pay rises for council workers across the country when the current four-year deal expires later this year.
Unison said now that councils had been given details of their funding allocations, it was time to ensure workforces shared in the settlement.
The current deal was only reached after several months of industrial action, which brought chaos to scho
ols, saw rubbish piling up in the streets and caused a huge backlog in planning applications.
This year’s claim will see the first negotiations since that settlement.
No figure has been set for the council workers’ claim, but local government unions are due to meet soon to agree on the details of what they will be asking for and it is likely to be a figure above the rate of inflation.
Unison is expected to press for a deal which tackles recruitment problems, addresses the gender gap and boosts the pay of particular groups such as nursery nurses, who have been involved in their own long-running dispute.
The deal, which expires this year, covers local government staff from cleaners to senior management, and was the first four-year deal in Scottish local government history.
It provided a three per cent increase in 2000 and 2001, a £500 flat-rate rise in 2002 and four per cent in 2003.
But it was agreed only after a series of strikes, walk-outs and one-day stoppages over six months from the summer of 2000 until February 2001.
Rubbish went uncollected for weeks on the streets of East and Midlothian as refuse collectors went on strike.
In Edinburgh, more than 100 administrative staff went on permanent strike, creating a huge backlog of planning applications and building control warrants and disrupting collection of housing rent and council tax.
And up to 7000 council staff in the Capital took part in one-day walk-outs, closing schools, libraries and children’s centres and even removing road gritting cover.
Preparations for a fresh pay claim come against a background of funding allocations for councils announced by Finance Minister Andy Kerr last month of £7.7 billion in 2004-5 and almost £8bn in 2005-6.
Joe Di Paola, Unison’s Scottish organiser for local government, said: "We welcome Andy Kerr’s two-year allocation for Scottish local government, but now we need to see that it goes into providing services.
"Part of that means ensuring those people delivering services are fairly paid. Now that the local councils have had a fair deal, they must reciprocate with their own staff."
He said the claim would take account of the approximate five per cent rise in the overall level of settlement.
"We will be discussing with our trade union colleagues the best way to use the two-year settlement to address problems of recruitment and retention in social work and elsewhere in local services, and to ensure low-paid staff such as nursery nurses are treated fairly.
"We must also address the problem of the gender gap in local government. Women are still paid significantly less than men and this cannot and should not continue."
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities said any realistic claim from Unison would be looked at.
But Cosla president Pat Watters said he was disappointed that Unison had gone public on the issue before the claim had been lodged.
He said: "As employers we are keen to avoid a repeat of the industrial action that blighted these negotiations last time round.
"We always have to balance what can be provided with what can be afforded."
The full article contains 624 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
