Council workers in GMB union say pay offer is not good enough

Thousands of council workers have voted to reject a pay offer which a union described as "clearly not good enough".

The GMB claimed the offer from local authority body Cosla amounted to a 5.5% pay increase.

According to Cosla, those on the lowest wages would see an increase of up to 9.1%, and those earning more than £38,585 would get just over 6%.

About 20,000 GMB members - including bin collectors, school cleaners and home carers - voted against the deal.

Keir Greenaway, the Scotland organiser for the union, said it was "absolutely no surprise" the offer was rejected by 94% of respondents.

He said council staff were not willing to accept an offer of around 5.5% when the rate of inflation is almost double that.

Mr Greenaway added: "This offer would short-change Scots council workers by hundreds of pounds compared to colleagues in England and Wales.

"Given the strength of feeling and determination to secure a pay offer that reflects the rising cost of living, it is now imperative that Cosla and Scottish government work together with urgency and commitment to fund a fair and acceptable offer.

"If for whatever reason that does not happen, and happen quickly, we will waste no time in escalating this dispute to ensure serious negotiations can begin."

Results are expected from both the Unite and Unison trade unions later.

In August last year, the Scottish government said it would give councils an extra £140m to help them give staff a bigger pay rise.

Members of the GMB, Unite and Unison later agreed to a deal which they said would give all staff a rise of at least £1,900.