Unions to decide whether to call off bin strike

A bin strike two years ago led to rubbish piling up on the streets of Edinburgh

Unions will meet on Monday morning to decide whether to suspend planned strike action by waste workers.

Last week, council leaders made them a new pay offer in an attempt to avoid industrial action.

Staff in 26 of Scotland’s 32 council areas plan to walk out from 14 – 22 August after rejecting two previous wage increases made by local government body Cosla.

Cosla said extra funding from the Scottish government meant it was now able to offer a 3.6% increase for all grades, with a rise of £1,292 for the lowest paid, equivalent to 5.63%.

The GMB, Unison and Unite unions took the weekend to consider the offer and are expected to announce on Monday afternoon if the planned strikes will be called off.

Unison's regional organiser David O'Connor said his union's local government committee would meet to further discuss the offer.

He told the BBC it would then decide whether or not to suspend industrial action while the union's 90,000 members are given the chance to vote on the offer.

Mr O' Connor said the offer would affect other groups of workers, not just refuse workers, so it would have to be fair to all of them.

"This offer covers the entire local government - so every council worker excluding teachers," he said.

"So we're talking about home carers, early years workers, social workers."

He said while on the face of it, the offer might look positive given the current rate of inflation, his members' pay had dropped in value over many years.

'Quietly hopeful'

Cosla made the new offer on Friday after the Scottish government found more money to help councils pay for it.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison warned it was at the "absolute limit of affordability".

The unions had previously been offered a 3.2% rise, backdated to April.

On Sunday, one government minister said she was "quietly hopeful" the offer would be sufficient to resolve the dispute.

Equalities Minister Kaukab Stewart told BBC Radio Scotland's The Sunday Show: "The negotiations, I believe, have been very constructive.

"The Scottish government doesn't have a formal role to play in this - it is up to the unions and to Cosla.

"It is at quite a delicate stage - I know the unions are considering that increased offer and are going to make a decision on whether they put that to their members."

Two years ago a 12-day strike by refuse workers saw litter building up in the streets, particularly in Edinburgh where the city was hosting its summer festivals.

Public Health Scotland was forced to declare a health warning due to an accumulation of waste in urban areas.

The dispute was eventually resolved in early September, but only after an intervention from then-first minister Nicola Sturgeon.