No agreement reached in local government pay talks – UNISON calls for ‘urgent intervention’ from Deputy First Minister

23 August 2022

Scotland’s largest local government union, UNISON, says no agreement has been reached despite lengthy pay negotiations with COSLA today (Tuesday).

Both UNISON and COSLA, the umbrella body representing council employers, will be writing to Deputy First Minister to ask for an urgent meeting to discuss increase funding for local authorities to enable talks to continue.

Johanna Baxter, UNISON Scotland’s head of local government, said: “It was a very long meeting but unfortunately there has been no breakthrough and we are a long way from a pay offer that we would be able to recommend to our members.

“COSLA negotiated within the cost envelope that leaders mandated them but that simply isn’t enough and goes nowhere near matching the pay offer provided to council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“The only thing that both parties could agree on is that we need the urgent intervention from the Deputy First Minister to put additional funding in place and both will be writing to the Deputy First Minister to that effect today.”