'Cautious optimism' over council pay dispute talks

Schools and early years centres in 11 council areas will close if the three-day strike goes ahead

Unions are hopeful a deal can be agreed to avoid further strike action after the first minister intervened in the pay dispute.

Nicola Sturgeon hosted talks on Thursday in a bid to stop school and nursery closures and another round of bin strikes next week.

Council leaders are now meeting to discuss how to proceed.

There is said to be cautious optimism that the talks are heading towards an agreement being reached.

Hundreds of schools and early years centres in 11 local authority areas across Scotland are due to close for three days next week when non-teaching staff walk out.

Another round of strikes by refuse workers is also due to be held in 19 council areas between and 6 and 13 September

• Which schools are closed and when during strikes?

• When are the next bin strikes planned?

• Government 'cannot offer' more money to end strikes

Johanna Baxter, head of local government for Unison - which has 13,000 members from schools and early years centres preparing to strike next week - said they had not yet received a revised offer from councils but were more optimistic that an agreement was moving closer.

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme she said: "A lot can happen in the space of 24 hours so I'm not going to count my chickens before they hatch, but certainly I think there was a willingness on all sides to make movement.

"I certainly hope that leaders will move a step in our direction so that we have something that will put more money in the pockets of unison members across the country."

Any new deal would have to go to members to be approved and an offer on Monday could be too late to avert strike action in schools, she said.

"I would certainly hope that would focus the minds of everybody involved in trying to secure a resolution," Ms Baxter added.

"I think the meeting [of Cosla and council leaders] is really pivotal and clearly we would convene the committees of each of our trade unions in order to make decisions as soon as any revised offer came through."

Other union sources said the 11-hour talks at St Andrew's House in Edinburgh with Ms Sturgeon on Thursday had been positive and the discussions were moving in the right direction.

A spokesman for GMB Scotland said: "We believe progress has been made and would hope last night's negotiations will result in a fresh offer that can be put to our local government committee for review."

There is cautious optimism this morning that the council pay dispute is coming towards a resolution.

Council leaders from across the country are discussing the situation this morning.

After that, unions expect to receive a new pay offer.

One big question will be just what the new pay offer will mean in practice. Will the special cost of living payments be replaced by larger rises in salaries?

Once a new pay offer has been made each union will discuss its response.

The hope would be that the offer will at least be sufficiently good that it leads to the suspension of next weeks action while members vote on whether to accept it.

But some within the unions say that if meaningful talks like yesterday's and those last week had taken place some time ago, the bin strikes could have been avoided.

Nicola Sturgeon intervened in the pay dispute between unions and Cosla

A Scottish government spokesman said: "Detailed negotiations took place on Thursday afternoon and carried on late into the night.

"We are grateful to all parties and would encourage all sides to continue to seek a fair and sustainable settlement."

Unite, the GMB and Unison had rejected an increased pay offer earlier this week.

Cosla said at the time it was disappointed that unions had turned down a deal that was at the "absolute extremes" of affordability, while Ms Sturgeon warned there was no "bottomless pit" of money to pay for an improved offer.

The first wave of strikes began in Edinburgh on 18 August

The unions are seeking an agreement similar to the one made to council workers in England - which included a £1,925 flat rate pay increase.

Cosla's £1,925 offer matched the deal for council workers in England - but only part of this payment would be consolidated into staff salaries. The rest would be given as one-off cost of living payments.

Unions said this meant lower-paid staff would not benefit as much as those on higher wages.

Revised offer

The bin strikes began in Edinburgh on 18 August after unions rejected an initial pay offer equivalent to a 3.5% increase.

The action then escalated last week when workers at a further 20 local authorities walked out despite a revised 5% offer.

This walkout ended on Thursday, with a second wave of strikes due to begin.

The Scottish government has given an additional £140m to councils to help fund a pay deal for council staff.

It has also offered a further £200m over two years to provide the cost-of-living payments to workers earning below £39,000.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said there was no more money for further pay increases as government finances were "finite".