Unions say janitors’ strike could have been resolved
MANAGEMENT has rejected an offer to resolve a longrunning school janitors strike in Glasgow, according to unions.
Yesterday, the Evening Times reported a proposed shake-up of janitor roles in Glasgow with 33 jobs being cut and a pay rise for those remaining.
Unison, whose members have been in dispute over contracted payments for some cleaning duties, said t here was an opportunity to end the industrial action.
It wanted to negotiate changes in two stages and agree a deal on the payments then discuss the other changes with the industrial action called off.
Workers have staged a series of strikes and protests in the action over a refusal of Cordia to pay Working Context and Demands payments to staff.
Officials said that Cordia rejected this approach and instead want to negotiate the overall package as one deal.
It could mean that while the payments issue that has led to the long-running dispute could have been settled with the increase, because of other issues which in themselves may not have led to industrial action causing problems, there could be no agreement at all.
The plan will be put to a vote of Unison members next week but at this stage it is unlikely to be accepted, officials say.
The plan would see janitors get a pay rise of more than £1000 and their job title changed to Facilities Assistants.
They would work across 30 clusters in the city with several schools and nurseries in one cluster
Brian Smith, Glasgow branch Secretary, said there were outstanding concerns and many holes in the proposals.
He said there would be six janitors covering eight schools in some cases working a seven-untilseven shift pattern.
He said: “How will the clusters work? Some schools will not have a janitor on site. We will put it to the members but there is a lack of detail about the clusters at the moment which will affect the whole package.”
Unions still have concerns about the impact on janitors of working across multiple locations and also how schools get covered in emergency or urgent situations, when there is not a janitor on site.
Cordia said the shake-up would provide a modern facilities service.
Andy Clark, Cordia director of Services, said: “This reform provides a platform to develop a traditional service into a new, modern facilities management service that will place Cordia staff at the heart of the Glasgow community, and which will showcase Cordia staff and the vital services they deliver to the citizens of Glasgow as part of the Transforming Glasgow Agenda.”
The janitors have stages a series of strikes and a number of protests in their Justice 4 Jannies campaign.
They have targeted Council leader, Frank McAveety, calling on him to i ntervene with Cordia.
They have also protested outside the Scottish Parliament and last week demonstrated outside a Labour Party event in Glasgow attended by UK party leader Jeremy Corbyn.