JOHN Swinney has said “no more money” can be put on the table to settle pay disputes with unions in local government.
Unison announced on Tuesday council workers had voted overwhelmingly to reject the latest pay offer from local government body Cosla which includes an hourly uplift of £0.67 or a 3.6% increase, whichever is higher.
It means Unison has mandates for strike action by waste and recycling workers at 13 councils and for education and early years staff in five councils.
In announcing a £500 million package of cuts to balance this year’s budget on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Shona Robison said pay had been a "significant driver of in-year pressures".
Asked if there was anything that could be done to avert strike action, the First Minister gave a stark response telling LBC “no more decisions” can be taken to increase resources.
Swinney said: “We’ve put our offers on the table in support of individual workforces, we have maximised the resources available, it’s pretty obvious from the announcements we made yesterday that we’ve had to make some pretty tough decisions to make that possible, and no more decisions can be taken to increase the resources available.”
Pressed on whether strike action was “very much on the cards”, he replied: “Well there’s no more money that can be put on the table to support these pay deals.”
Robison (below) said the Scottish Government has put in “as much money as we can” to try to avoid strikes by council staff.
She said, while it was “disappointing” that Unison had voted against the latest pay deal, the issue was one for Cosla to resolve.
The Finance Secretary told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “We have put as much money as we can into these envelopes, to try to avoid what is costly industrial action.”
The bill for pay deals is expected to cost the Scottish Government an additional £800 million, Robison told MSPs on Tuesday.
Unison’s local government committee, made up of senior stewards from across Scotland, will discuss next steps over the next few days.
The offer was accepted by the GMB union, however Unison recommended to members that they reject it.
Unison said it “falls short of expectations” given the 25% real-terms pay cut over the past 14 years, and that “council workers in Scotland are angry their pay offer is not in line with other public service workers, many of whom have been given 5.5% pay rises”.
