Councils seek government funds to avoid school-closing strikes

Planned strike action affects school catering, cleaning, janitorial, admin and classroom assistance staff

Councils are seeking Scottish government funding to make staff an improved pay deal and avoid strikes which will close schools.

Unions have rejected the latest pay offer which impacts non-teaching staff.

They say a substantially improved offer needs to be made by 17:00 on Wednesday to avoid the strikes.

The Scottish government has previously said that any deal would need to come from money already allocated to councils.

However, local government body Cosla wants to hold talks with Deputy First Minister Shona Robison.

The three-day strike by Unison, Unite and the GMB will happen across 26 of Scotland's 32 council areas.

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The dispute is over the pay offer for all council workers other than teachers who are covered by a different pay agreement.

The staff being called out include janitors and school catering staff.

A number of councils - including Glasgow - have already said schools will close because of the strike.

The most recent pay offer, made last week, was quickly rejected by the three unions.

It would give workers at least a £1,929 increase in annual salary by 1 January 2024.

Cosla said the deal would have seen the lowest-paid local government workers receiving a 21% pay increase in two years.

It added that it would cost councils just under £500m.

But Unison said the offer "contains no improvement whatsoever to the one presented to us in April and which members have already rejected".

GMB Scotland, which represents more than 21,000 workers across Scotland's 32 councils, said that "after a long, frustrating process" its members were left with no choice but to go ahead with strike action.