Hundreds of Scottish Water workers to strike over pay

Hundreds of frontline Scottish Water workers are set to strike over the next three months in a dispute over pay and grading.

Members of the Unite and Unison unions have announced the first strikes will take place over four days from 10-13 November.

Unite said its strikes would carry on weekly over the following three months. Members of the GMB union are also planning strike action.

Scottish Water said it was dismayed that unions had taken this course of action and were "committed to reaching an agreement".

Strike weekly

Unite said 500 of its members would strike while more than 1,100 Unison workers will also take action.

The first strikes will begin at midnight on 10 November and end at 23.59 on 13 November.

Unite members will then strike weekly until 26 January, amounting to 48 days in total.

The union said the strikes would be likely to disrupt Scottish Water's ability to respond to issues such as leaks, flooding, sewage problems and concerns about drinking water quality.

They claimed managers had linked this year's pay offer to a wider restructuring of grades and salaries, which they believe will limit the future wages of workers and must be negotiated separately.

'Insatiable greed'

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the strike action sent a message to Scottish Water's management that their behaviour would "no longer be tolerated".

She said the situation had been created by Scottish Water's "own arrogance and insatiable greed".

Unison's Scottish Water branch secretary Patricia MacArthur said the company's treatment of workers was "storing up problems for the future".

While GMB Scotland's organiser Claire Greer urged the first minister to intervene to avoid strike action as Scottish Water had made no genuine attempt to resolve the dispute.

The publicly-owned company said it was putting in place a contingency plan for strike days and was examining how its activities may be impacted.

Scottish Water's chief operating officer Peter Farrer said: “We are dismayed the unions have taken this course of action."

He said: “We will do all we can to ensure customers do not experience any disruption.

"This has been the case throughout the negotiations over the proposal to modernise a 21-year-old pay and grading structure and provide employees with an in-year award of at least 8% for all."

A Scottish government spokesperson said: "These pay negotiations are a matter for Scottish Water, as the employer, and the unions - we encourage all parties to continue negotiations to resolve this dispute."