Schools chaos fear as council staff plan two-day pay strike

SCHOOLS across Scotland’s biggest city are to be shut this month as council staff go on strike.

Classroom assistants, cleaners and clerical staff in Glasgow are among those staging walkouts which will close schools for two days.

The move comes after talks to reach a settlement in a bitter and long-running row over equal pay ground to a halt.

The GMB and Unison unions said more than 8,000 workers would strike on October 23 and 24 in an action that will also affect home care, nurseries, and cleaning and catering services across the city.

Maureen McKenna, executive director of education at SNP-run Glasgow City Council, said in a letter to parents: ‘As a direct result of this action your child’s school will be closed on both dates.’

Council officials hope secondary schools will remain open but primaries and nurseries are likely to shut. ‘Life and limb’ care in nursing homes and home care for the elderly and vulnerable are expected to continue during the strike.

After the council told Unison and GMB it would not negotiate with them while strike action was being taken, the other claimant, Action 4 Scotland, has also pulled out of the talks. A letter from the three parties to council chief executive Annemarie O’Donnell states there will be no unilateral talks.

She had said the unions were acting in bad faith and there could be no negotiations until the strike threat ended.

The dispute centres on the way some jobs were graded several years ago. Women carers, cleaners, catering staff, classroom assistants and clerical staff were paid £3 an hour less than men in low-paid roles.

The council and unions met yesterday and sources said ‘sensible conversations’ took place about how to manage the fallout from the strike. A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: ‘Clearly, we want to avert a strike if at all possible and plan to meet unions again later this week.’

The row comes as the EIS teachers’ union prepares to launch a strike ballot over a demand for a 10 per cent pay rise.