No alternative to 'all-out' council strike - Unite

Council workers have no alternative than to take "all-out" strike action which could shut schools and leave rubbish piling up, a union has warned.

Employees who work in education settings and refuse centres voted to strike after rejecting a 2% pay offer.

Unite representative Eddie Cassidy said union members could not afford to accept the "measly offer".

Local authority body Cosla said it had asked the Scottish government for more money.

The Scottish government repeated that it was urging all parties to find a resolution to avoid industrial action.

Pay settlements for council workers - apart from teachers - are the responsibility of Cosla and are determined through negotiations at the Scottish Joint Committee (SJC).

Further talks are due to take place between Cosla and the joint unions on Monday.

Unions have said the walkouts could happen after pupils return from the summer break in August, with hundreds of schools affected.

The strike ballot of about 25,000 council workers from the Unison, Unite and GMB unions was said to be the largest in more than a decade.

Mr Cassidy, a Scottish Representative on Unite's Executive Council, told BBC Radio Scotland's The Sunday Show that it was apparent that the Scottish government was not taking the issue seriously.

"The cuts to local authority budgets have been deeper and harder in Scotland than they have in England over the past decade and that was a choice by the Scottish SNP government," he said.

"I have to agree with the first minister when she said on Friday that this was all about robbing Peter to pay Paul because she's certainly robbed local authority budgets over the past 10 years to pay somewhere else."

He said the membership had "had enough" and could not afford to accept a "2% measly offer".

Mr Cassidy said the Scottish government was hiding behind the "technical fact" that it did not have front-line responsibility for local government which he said was "quite laughable".

He added: "They are the ones who have ring-fenced the vast majority of the sums of money they've given to budgets and have told local government what they can and cannot do in relation to the community tax over the past 10 years.

"Cosla have made it crystal clear that they agree with us, that the money on offer is not enough for the workforce, and the only way local government get their money is by funding from the Scottish SNP government.

"They have cut deeply into essential services."

It is estimated that more than half of Scotland's 250,000 council workers earn less than £25,000 a year for a 37-hour week.

However, Mr Cassidy said many only earned between £18,000 and £22,000 a year, adding that "2% doesn't go anywhere near it".

He said some workers could not afford to buy both bread and milk and some had asked to take holidays at the end of the month because they could not afford bus fares to get to work.

"That's unsustainable," he said. "These holidays are meant to alleviate stress and anxiety and our members are subsidising the vast cuts the Scottish government have implemented on the budgets of local authority.

"That's just totally unacceptable."

He said members in England had been offered up to 10.5% by the UK government.

Last week Unison said workers were "fed up of being used as a political football" between council body Cosla and the Scottish government, while the GMB said the 2% offered was a "shameful proposal".

A Cosla spokesman said it "valued hugely the local government workforce" and that discussions with the unions would continue in order to "reach an agreement and avoid strike action."

The spokesman added: "As employers we have a responsibility to ensure that any pay deal offered is both sustainable and affordable and that is why we are unable to go beyond the current offer at this point.

"We are currently in discussions with the Scottish government and await their response to leaders' request for additional funding."

The Scottish government said: "Ministers note and respect the results of the local government industrial action ballots. Local government workers play a crucial role in our communities and are integral to our recovery from the pandemic.

"Although the Scottish government has no formal role in the national local government pay negotiations, the government and Cosla are working to jointly explore all of the options available to find solutions.

"In the meantime, the Scottish government urges both parties to continue dialogue and seek a resolution which avoids industrial action."