School and nursery staff to strike over pay

School catering staff are among those due to take strike action

School and nursery staff in nine Scottish council areas are to go on strike for three days next month in a row over pay, it has been confirmed.

Unison and the GMB said their members will strike on 6, 7 and 8 September after talks with council body Cosla failed to reach an agreement.

School and early years staff will join waste and recycling workers who have already started strike action.

Unison said a total of 13,000 members would be involved.

It will see schools, early years centres and nurseries disrupted in Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, Orkney, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Stirling.

The unions represent workers including school catering staff, cleaners, caretakers, teaching assistants and early years practitioners.

• Bin strikes continue as unions query pay offer

Unions have been seeking more details about a 5% pay offer from councils, with the row seeing bin workers in Edinburgh start a two-week strike last week, with refuse staff in about half of Scotland's other councils due to join them from tomorrow.

Local authorities had initially proposed a 3.5% increase before increasing their offer to 5%, with the minimum hourly rate also to be raised to £10.50.

But unions have said there is not enough detail about how it will affect the lowest paid workers.

Unite are also involved in the dispute, with representatives from Cosla and the unions holding further talks on Tuesday.

Cosla said the meeting had been "constructive and productive" with a "new firm offer" being put to the unions.

A spokesman said: "It is our hope that they will now take this offer away and consult their membership on it."

Ahead of the meeting, Johanna Baxter - Unison Scotland's head of local government - said unions were still trying to find a solution to the dispute.

Refuse workers in Edinburgh are in the midst of a two-week strike which has left many bins in the capital overflowing

She said many members were struggling with fuel, food and household bills, and accused both Cosla and the Scottish government of "dragging their heels" over a pay offer.

She added: "So far we have only had an offer of talks - we have not had a pay offer.

"Until we can explain to Unison members how a pay offer might impact on them, council workers have been left with no choice but to strike."

The GMB said its school and nursery staff would be striking in Glasgow and East Renfrewshire as a "direct response by our members to the ongoing failure by political leaders to confront the biggest cost of living crisis in forty years."

The union's public services organiser Keir Greenaway said: "Our members in schools and early years are among the lowest paid in our councils yet deliver vital services that support our kids' education, help keep them fed, and their schools clean and safe - all too often they are forgotten workers of the Scottish education system.

"They deserved to be valued so much better, and they need to be too if they are able to survive the scourge of soaring inflation and energy bills in the weeks and months to come."

The Scottish government has previously said that councils have enough money to offer workers a "reasonable" pay rise, but Cosla said further discussions were needed with the government over long-term funding and flexibilities to limit the impact on public services and communities.

Local government minister Shona Robison said the pay discussions were a matter for local authorities and unions, and called for strike action not to take place while talks were continuing.

She added: "We have sought to do what we can within the resources available to us to support a meaningful revised offer in the face of the cost of living emergency."

Is there a bin strike in my area?

Refuse workers in Edinburgh began industrial action on 18 August. Bin collectors from 14 other councils will begin their strike on 24 August.

• Aberdeen

• Angus

• Clackmannanshire

• Dundee

• East Ayrshire

• East Lothian

• East Renfrewshire

• Edinburgh,

• Falkirk

• Glasgow

• Highland

• Inverclyde

• South Ayrshire

• South Lanarkshire

• West Lothian

Workers at a further seven councils will go on strike from 26 August. Some local authorities have said they will try to maintain collections.

• Aberdeenshire

• North Lanarkshire

• Stirling

• Highland

• Midlothian

• Orkney

• Perth and Kinross

Where are school and nursery staff on strike?

Industrial action by staff in schools, nurseries and early years' centres in nine council areas are scheduled to walk out on 6, 7 and 8 September

• Aberdeenshire

• Clackmannanshire

• East Renfrewshire

• Glasgow City

• Inverclyde

• Orkney

• North Lanarkshire

• Stirling

• South Lanarkshire