Council workers have overwhelmingly rejected a new pay deal.
Members of the GMB union, including bin collectors, school cleaners and home carers, have knocked back a deal from local authority body Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).
The union claims the deal represented a 5.5 per cent pay increase with COSLA describing it as a rise of up to 9.1 per cent for the lowest earners, with people earning more than £38,585 in line to receive more than six per cent.
More than 20,000 GMB members took part in the ballot on the pay offer, with 94 per cent rejecting it.
GMB Scotland senior organiser, Keir Greenaway, said: “Given the continuing cost of living crisis, it is absolutely no surprise workers are unwilling to accept what is effectively a pay cut.
“The offer was clearly not good enough.
“This offer would short-change Scots council workers by hundreds of pounds compared to colleagues in England and Wales.
“Given the strength of feeling and determination to secure a pay offer that reflects the rising cost of living, it is now imperative that COSLA and Scottish Government work together with urgency and commitment to fund a fair and acceptable offer.
“If, for whatever reason, that does not happen and happen quickly, we will waste no time in escalating this dispute to ensure serious negotiations can begin.”
Results of ballots on the offer from the Unite and Unison unions are expected this week.
