Scottish council leaders want 5% staff pay offer to avert strikes

GMB waste workers are due to go on strike next week

Leaders at Scotland's biggest councils have said they want to offer staff a 5% pay rise to avert staff strike action.

Edinburgh's Labour leader Cammy Day said the Scottish government should provide more cash to pay for it.

Glasgow City Council's SNP leader Susan Aitken said a higher offer should already be achievable.

Unions rejected a 3.5% pay offer from local authority body Cosla on Friday. Bin workers and recycling staff in Edinburgh are due to strike next week.

They will be joined by colleagues at 15 councils across Scotland days later.

The Scottish government said it expected local government to match a £140m contribution to help them give staff a bigger pay rise.

• Strike-threatened councils make new staff pay offer

• Bin collectors to strike during Edinburgh festival

City of Edinburgh council leader, Mr Day, told BBC Scotland: "Many leaders across Scotland have agreed that a minimum pay award should be 5%.

"Councils have been cash-strapped for many years. We are cutting services to the bone if we make any more cuts here in Edinburgh.

"We are calling on the Scottish government, who we know have hundreds of millions of pounds in reserves, to dig deep.

"If ever there was a rainy day that rainy day is now."

Edinburgh leader Cammy Day said council leaders want to make an improved offer but need government funding

Bin workers from the GMB and Unite unions are set to strike during the Edinburgh Festival, from 18 August until 30 August.

This will be followed by colleagues at 15 councils from August 26 to 29 and September 7 to10.

Glasgow City Council said the 3.5% pay deal was not enough to offer unions.

Leader Susan Aitken said: "Personally I am disappointed. I don't think it is enough.

"I don't think it is a credible or realistic position for us to take to our staff and I think it is going to cause more delay.

"I would much rather have seen a bigger offer to be put on the table, but Cosla has made its decision"

Waste and recycling workers voted to strike after rejecting a the pay offer

GMB members will strike in Aberdeen, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Highland, Midlothian, Orkney, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Perth and Kinross, and North Lanarkshire.

Unison members in Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire have also said they will walk out.

GMB senior organiser, Keir Greenaway, said: "For our members, all they care about is getting a pay rise that will get them through this cost of living crisis.

"At the end of the day, they are more worried about paying their next bills than which government department the money comes from."

On Friday local government minister Shona Robison said it was "extremely disappointing" that Cosla had not come up with a 5% offer.

She said: "Cosla recognised this was not an issue for the Scottish government to solve in its entirety - it has got to be a partnership.

"Which means local authorities must look at every possible area of finance to come to a fair and affordable pay offer for staff which avoids damaging industrial action."

The council pay offer in Scotland falls below the rest of the UK.

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, a one-year pay offer for local authority staff will provide between 4% for senior council and school staff, and 10.5% for those on the lowest grades.