Council Workers Step Up Pay Campaign

10th July 2018

‘Wish you were ... paying us properly'. Council workers send postcards to Swinney and MacKay.

Thousands of union members have used postcards to deliver a holiday message of ‘it's time for fair pay’ to John Swinney and Finance secretary Derek MacKay

The postcards are part of Local Government union UNISON’s, ongoing campaign for better deal for council staff. The union are in talks with COSLA and the Scottish Government pressing for more money for local government pay.

Whilst negotiations so far have achieved a pay offer that breaks the pay cap - that won’t by itself deliver fair pay.

UNISON members are angry that last year teachers received a higher pay increase than other local government workers. UNISON are fighting to ensure the same does not happen this year. The Scottish government should value the contribution of all workers in local government equally.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA, local government employers) have also written to the Scottish Government pressing for additional funds so they can ensure all local government workers receive the same pay rise.

Johanna Baxter, UNISON’s Head of Local Government Bargaining, said: "Thousands of UNISON members, working in education and employed by local authorities across Scotland, have written to John Swinney demanding that the Scottish Government give all local government workers the fair pay rise they deserve.

When our members have lost 15% of their salary over the past ten years, due to zero or below inflation increases, it is untenable for the Scottish Government to treat some local authority workers as more deserving of a pay increase than others. If John Swinney wants to reduce the attainment gap in education he cannot do it without the efforts of local authority employees.

The Scottish Government must use some of their reported £453m under-spend to deliver additional cash to local authorities now.

Our members deliver for all our local communities. They are our bin collectors, road sweepers, educators, early years workers, home care assistants and much more. They protect our most vulnerable and give us a decent place to live. They deserve a decent standard of living in return."

PHOTO

LtR - Johanna Baxter, Mark Ferguson & Carol Ball (all UNISON)