Statement ahead of council pay talks with Deputy First Minister and COSLA at 2.30, St Andrews House, today

25 August 2022

Johanna Baxter, UNISON head of local government, said: “We welcome that the Scottish Government and COSLA will both be in the same room with us. Council workers are fed up of being used as a political football as each party blames the other for lack of funding for a better pay deal for our members.

The trade unions had constructive talks with Deputy First Minister, John Swinney last night (Wednesday) where we agreed that both the Scottish government and COSLA have a role to play in resolving this dispute.

However there has still been no significant break though and the key issues remains the same. The funding envelop on the table is not enough and we need to construct a pay deal which is fair to everyone.

Council workers have been waiting 8 months for these talks to start, and UNISON strikes, which start tomorrow, will go ahead as planned unless and until we have an acceptable offer we can put to our members. We will continue to do everything we can to reach that point.”

Notes

• UNISON is the largest union in local government.

• Yesterday’s press release: https://unison-scotland.org/unison-statement-after-leaving-council-pay-talks-with-john-swinney-deputy-first-minister/

• Press release with strike dates: https://unison-scotland.org/unison-serve-notices-for-school-and-early-years-strikes/

• COSLA’s latest pay offer: https://unison-scotland.org/wp-content/uploads/22-08-23-SJC-Letter-of-Offer.pdf

• Trade union pay claim is here: https://unison-scotland.org/wp-content/uploads/SJC-Pay-Claim-2022.pdf

UNISON Contacts
• Johanna Baxter, head of local government: 07817 120894
• Danny Phillips, communications officer: 07944 664110 / 0771 7715277
• Trisha Hamilton, communications officer: 07943 507307