School staff set to walk out in nine Scottish councils including Glasgow over COSLA pay dispute

Nursery and school workers in nine local authorities will strike for three days in September in a public sector pay dispute.

Unison has served notice of industrial action among education-facilities staff on September 6, 7 and 8 in locations including Glasgow, Aberdeenshire and North and South Lanarkshire following a lack of progress in talks with COSLA.

It comes as waste workers across the country prepared to join colleagues in Edinburgh on several days of walkouts over the wage rise offer of 3.5%.

Councils have accepted a revised deal of 5% amid the worst cost of living crisis in a generation, but unions say they need further information on the “vague” promise before any decision is made.

Unions are due to meet with COSLA on Tuesday.

School and early years staff across the board are expected to strike over the three-day period, with lessons cancelled.

It will be the largest strike among council workers since the Trade Union Act was introduced in 2016.

Staff in Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Orkney and Stirling councils also met the threshold for strike action.

Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland’ head of local government, said: “We are in urgent negotiations with the employer to try and find a solution, but 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.

“Unison has been demanding pay talks for months and COSLA and the Scottish Government are still dragging their heels. Inflation is predicted to rise to more than 13%, and our members are struggling as fuel, food and household bills go through the roof.

“Until we have a decent pay offer that we can put to Unison members our strike action will continue and thousands of school and early years workers will be talking action across nine councils in Scotland.”