Council staff could be set for strike by this summer

THOUSANDS of council workers in Dundee could take strike action within the next couple of months.

A union boss said today that up to 2,000 local authority staff in the city were closer than ever to taking action in their fight for a pay rise.

Jim Macfarlane, of Unison, said more than two-thirds of members locally and nationally voted to reject the Scottish Government’s pay offer in a recent ballot.

He said: “The vote nationally was overwhelmingly to reject the offer and the Dundee vote against was even higher. We recommended that our members should reject the offer and they have done so in their thousands.

“The next step now is to ballot workers on industrial action, including strike action.”

If members vote in favour, a series of strikes by local authority workers could take place as early as the beginning of the summer.

“That would affect services throughout Dundee in a variety of sectors — and further action could follow,” said Mr Macfarlane.

“It would involve up to 2,000 of our members in Dundee and would have a significant impact.”

Mr Macfarlane said Unison would conduct a ballot on industrial action among 70,000 local government members across Scotland.

Dougie Black, regional organiser for Unison Scotland, said: “Local government workers have suffered years of pay restraint and their pay is worth far less now than 10 years ago.

“The cost of food, gas and electricity, travel and childcare continues to rise and, as a consequence, their living standards have been severely eroded. That cannot continue.

“If pay had risen with inflation a home care worker, for example, would be paid £19,900 a year instead of just £16,900; an early years worker would receive £24,100 instead of £20,400 and a library assistant would earn £26,400 instead of £22,400.”

The offer that was rejected would have given workers who earn less than £35,000 a flat rate £350 annual increase. The offer for anyone earning more than £35,000 was 1% of their annual salary.

A spokesman for Dundee City Council said: “The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA), as the employers’ organisation for all Scottish councils, negotiates salaries, wages and conditions of service for local government employees.”