LOCAL GOVERNMENT PAY UPDATE

To: Simon Cameron, COSLA SJC Joint Secretary

c.c: Cllr Katy Hagmann, COSLA Resources Spokesperson
John Swinney MSP, Deputy First Minister
All Scottish Council Leaders
Keir Greenaway, GMB
Wendy Dunsmore, Unite

Date: 15th August 2022

– sent via e-mail –

Dear Simon,

SJC Pay 2022

We write further to your correspondence of 12th August outlining COSLA’s revised SJC pay offer for 2022.

Our Local Government Committee met this morning and have unanimously agreed to reject this revised offer outright.

In doing so our representatives were clear that your revised offer:
– is not sufficiently improved for us to put this to our members in a consultative ballot.
– falls far short of the Joint Trade Union’s claim, which was submitted on 17th January 2022.
– falls far short of the offer made to council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who have been offered a £1925 flat rate uplift, which equates to a 10.5% increase for those on the lowest wages.
– falls far short of the current rate of inflation, which continues to rise, and will therefore amount to a real-terms pay cut for our members and as such will plunge more of them into debt.
– fails to address items contained within our claim, beyond the quantum, on which there has been no progress in other discussion forums.
– fails to recognise, respect or appropriately reward our members for their enormous
contribution to keeping our country going throughout the period of the pandemic or supporting our communities on a daily basis.

On the basis of this rejection the strike action UNISON has already notified for members employed in waste and recycling will proceed and we will confirm dates for strike action in schools and early years in the coming days.

We note that COSLA Leaders have agreed to seek additional funding from the Scottish
Government to improve the pay offer. We urge you to get back round the table with them as a matter of urgency and extend an invitation to the three SJC trade unions to this meeting to facilitate a speedy resolution to this matter and avoid the widespread disruption that industrial action will cause.

We look forward to hearing from you at the earliest possible opportunity.

Regards,

Johanna Baxter                                   Mark Ferguson
Head of Local Government             Chair, Local Government Committee
UNISON Scotland                               UNISON Scotland