Unions warn threat of Dumfries and Galloway bin strike could return

Union bosses have warned strike action could be resurrected despite council staff voting to accept a pay deal.

Members in the Unison, Unite and GMB Scotland unions voted to accept an improved offer from the Scottish Government and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’ (COSLA) last month following a long running dispute.

But unions claim COSLA is limiting some aspects of the deal – an extra day’s leave and the payment of social worker registration fees – to one year when it had been thought they would be in perpetuity.

And officials say their mandate from an earlier ballot for strike action remains live despite members agreeing to accept the offer.

Unison Scotland’s head of local government Johanna Baxter said: “This is appalling behaviour – either the employer did not even understand the offer they themselves were making or they did and are now trying to renege on it before it’s even been implemented.

“Either way it will be our members who suffer if they are allowed to get away with it.

“We have made clear to the employer and the Scottish Government that our strike mandates remain live and all three trade unions are under increasing pressure from members, who are rapidly losing faith in their employer, to lift the strike suspensions and call members out if a resolution is not achieved quickly.

“Our members will rightly be questioning the value of COSLA if they cannot be trusted to draft an offer that they understand or uphold one that they do understand.”

The pay dispute saw members of all three unions vote for strike action. However, Unite was the only one in Dumfries and Galloway to achieve the required turnout.

Waste collection staff who are members of Unite were due to start an eight day walkout on September 6 but the strike was suspended following a new offer of a flat rate increase of more than £1,900 for all workers earning less than £39,000 a year.

The latest disagreement raises the prospect of that industrial action taking place in the future.

A COSLA spokesman said: “We value our local government workforce highly.

“That is why, in an attempt to get the money to the local government workforce as soon as possible, we have offered to separate the pay element of the agreement from the parts that require clarification.

“On the clarification points, in the interests of COSLA’s members, and given significant financial constraints across the public sector, we are working with Scottish Government to ensure there is a shared understanding in relation to all parts of the deal.”