Fife waste services workers set to go on strike next week

WORKERS in Fife Council’s waste services are set to take part in eight days of strike action next month.

Unite and the GMB has announced that more local authority workers will now be involved in industrial action as part of the nationwide pay dispute.

The unions confirmed earlier this week that a five per cent pay offer from COSLA had been rejected.

Some Scottish councils had members in waste services taking part in strike action over the weekend and Fife is one of five local authorities to join a second phase of strike action from September 6 to 13.

Councils in Angus, Dundee, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, and South Lanarkshire will also see action taken in schools and early years services on September 6, 7, 8 and 9 – but only waste services are set to be affected in Fife to date.

Further talks have taken place since the announcement of further action, however, the renewed offer – of a minimum increase of five per cent on average across the local government pay grades with a varying one-off payment for the lower-paid – has also been knocked back.

Unite industrial officer Wendy Dunsmore said the structure of the latest offer continued to “disproportionately and unfairly” affect the lowest-paid.

“In real terms, it leaves the lowest-paid workers no better off and a significant proportion of the offer does not enhance overtime, allowances or pensions,” she said. “The offer remains unacceptable and it represents a waste of precious time.

“We understand the gravity of the situation across the country but, equally, our members are facing the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation. Unite’s strike action remains scheduled for next week unless COSLA gets back to us with a credible offer which addresses our primary concerns.”

Unison Scotland’s head of local government, Johanna Baxter, said council workers were struggling to cope with the cost-of-living crisis.

“This is another pay cut they simply cannot afford, which is why we are recommending they reject the offer and continue with the action already planned to try to secure a bigger consolidated sum,” she added.

GMB Scotland’s senior organiser for public services, Keir Greenaway, said a flat rate award was a key demand from unions.

“COSLA knew this but instead tabled this offer as an across-theboard percentage rise that only feathers the nests of service directors,” he said. “This was unacceptable to our local government committee members.

“It’s not credible that in the grip of the biggest cost-of-living crisis in 40 years, and with inflation and energy bills soaring, a head of service gets four times the consolidated increase than a bin collector, cleaner or carer. That’s why we have written to COSLA again this evening urging them to return to talks as soon as possible and to negotiate a new offer based on a flat rate increase.”

COSLA said they had offered one of the best pay deals for their workforce in decades and was “as good as it gets”. They say that, based on a 37-hour week, no member of staff would get less than an additional £1,925 and for those earning under £20,500, at least a £2,000 pay increase – for this year and also next year – and that this had been designed to address unions’ concerns that the lowest-paid must be protected.

Councillor Katie Hagmann, COSLA’s resources spokesperson, said: “We have done everything possible to put the best offer we can to our workforce. But we are now at the absolute extremes of affordability and this is already an offer which is stretching our already-stretched finances like never before.

“This year’s offer is significantly better and different to previous offers and would have helped to support our council workforces across the country at this difficult time. That support is crucial at any time but particularly now, during the cost-of-living crisis the country is facing. This is why we are so disappointed with the response to it from our trade union colleagues.

“Given our commitment as employers to get to this point, we are disappointed that trade unions will not suspend planned strike action whilst they put this offer to members to allow workers to get back to doing what they do best, delivering high-quality, essential services right across Scotland. We have done everything we possibly can to get to this stage and that this offer – which is still on the table – is as good as it gets.”