Scotland school strikes called off after pay deal accepted

Strike action had closed schools across Scotland in recent months

School staff have ended a long-running pay dispute with council leaders after accepting a pay offer.

Unison members in schools and nurseries - including janitors and catering staff - had been involved in industrial action since September.

They have agreed a deal that sets a timetable for staff to be paid a minimum of £15 per hour by 2026, with payments backdated to April 2023.

Cosla welcomed the acceptance of the "strong offer".

• School strikes suspended after new pay offer

• More schools to shut as further strikes confirmed

The dispute involved pupil support, cleaning, catering administration and janitorial workers in schools and early years centres across the country.

The Unite and GMB trade unions had already voted to accept the previous pay offer which will see the lowest-paid workers get a rise of about £2,000 a year while other staff would get rises worth at least 5.5%.

Unison staff had sought further guarantees over the pay uplift and voted for the fresh deal by a margin of 69.6%.

Industrial action had led to walkouts and school closures in multiple council areas between September and early November.

'Long overdue'

Johanna Baxter, the union's head of local government, said: "This deal is long overdue and was hard fought for by Unison members.

"Cosla urgently need to review the bargaining process to ensure that future pay negotiations progress quickly and with as little disruption as possible."

Cosla resources spokesperson Katie Hagmann said: "Throughout this challenging process, we have listened carefully to our trade unions, met all their asks, and worked with Scottish government to put an incredibly strong half a billion pound pay package forward.

"For the sake of everyone in our local government workforce, who are delivering essential front-line services, I am pleased that the pay offer has now been accepted by all of our Trade Union colleagues."

On Sunday, the deputy first minister said there was "no doubt" that Scotland's public sector workforce will have to shrink due to funding pressures.

Shona Robison said there was "no doubt" that staffing for services would have to be reduced due to tight budgets and inflation-driven pay deals.

The dispute concerned the pay offer for virtually all council staff other than teachers.

School support staff in Unison were striking on behalf of their colleagues in a whole range of other jobs.

The headline pay offer is the same as the one before the action. The lowest paid would get a rise of about £2,000 a year while others would get rises worth at least 5.5%.

But there were two significant improvements which led to Unison recommending acceptance of the offer and calling off strikes.

One was to backdate the rise to April for all staff, rather than most of them.

The other was to secure a clearer timescale from councils to introducing a living wage of £15 an hour. It's hoped this will be in place by 2026.