Scottish councils find another £80m in bid to stop mass school strikes

Councils have found another £80m to pay school staff more as they attempt to prevent mass strikes across the country, STV News understands.

Up to £30m of this is said to come from the Scottish Government – which previously said councils would have to find the cash within their existing budgets.

It’s understood local authorities were able to find around another £50m after being given more flexibility over spending.

Unions are expecting a new offer from COSLA at Thursday lunchtime.

Unison and GMB are then due to hold meetings in the afternoon to consider it.

STV News understand that the roughly £84m extra cash will be used to make a deal backdating a 7% rise to April.

Janitors, cleaners, caterers, classroom assistants and administrative staff are due to walk out in a series of strikes beginning on September 26 in a dispute over pay.

On Wednesday, Unite, Unison and GMB unions granted COSLA a grace period to improve the £1,929 increase offered last month before deciding on whether walkouts will take place next week.

COSLA now has until 5pm on Thursday to make a new offer to Unite and avoid the action, while Unison has extended the deadline until midday.

The deal covers all council workers apart from teachers who are covered under a separate deal.

A total of 26 of Scotland’s 32 councils are set to see disruption.

They are:

Aberdeen
Aberdeenshire
Angus
Clackmannanshire
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar
Dumfries and Galloway
Dundee
East Dunbartonshire
East Renfrewshire
Edinburgh
Falkirk
Fife
Glasgow
Highland
Inverclyde
Moray
North Ayrshire
North Lanarkshire
Orkney
Perth and Kinross
Renfrewshire
Shetland
South Ayrshire
South Lanarkshire
Stirling
West Dunbartonshire