COSLA – Unite CEC Branch

Pay offer to be imposed—strike suspended (updated 21 November)

Pay deal to be in place from 21 December pay

COSLA Leaders met on Friday and agreed to impose the latest pay offer.

The Council have confirmed that this will be implemented and staff will receive their backpay in the 21 December pay. Read Andrew Kerr’s update, which includes the new salaries and hourly rates.

The latest offer is the same as the previous, but the uplift for some workers (GR5 to the bottom of GR11) that they were due to receive from January 2024, will now be for the full year from April 2023.

Unison have suspended all strike action while they consult their members on this offer. The Unison ballot closes on 28 November. Unison nationally are recommending their members accept the offer, but branches—such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee—are recommending reject.

Get ready for next year

Industrial action in schools on 8 November

Unison members in schools are striking on Wednesday 8 November in their on-going dispute over the national pay deal for all council workers.

Read about when others are on strike for information.

We met with HR today to discuss arrangements, which are still to be confirmed pending risk assessments of all schools. We will post any arrangements here as soon as they are confirmed.

Unite members have accepted the pay offer on the table. We are in talks with COSLA this week, where we will be urging COSLA to ensure the pay deal is implemented as soon as possible, to ensure workers have the much-needed backpay in time for Christmas.

Read the Council’s web page about the strike.

Closures

Primary schools, special schools and early years classes within schools will be closed. We await the arrangements for workers in these schools.

Secondary schools are open, with some ‘partially’ open. We await confirmation of what this means and arrangements for non-striking workers.

Standalone early years establishments are not affected by the strike, as Unison did not ballot these workers.

Ballot results are in—Unite and GMB accept, Unison reject

Unite accepts COSLA pay deal with 72% in favour

Members of all unions of the Scottish Joint Council—Unite, Unison and GMB—have now had their say on the latest COSLA pay offer:

Unite have accepted the deal, with 72% of members in favour.
Unison have rejected the deal, with 89% rejecting.
GMB have accepted, with 62%.

Unison have promised further industrial action in schools before the end of the year, however details are yet to be publicised.

We now await COSLA’s response.

Pay update—members balloted on new offer

Unison strikes to go ahead.
Unite and GMB suspend their strike action.

COSLA submitted a new offer, noted as their ‘best and final’, on 21 September. Unite, Unison and GMB are balloting their members on the offer.

Unison are going ahead with their planned industrial action in schools next week and are recommending their members reject the offer.

Unite and GMB have suspended all industrial action while they ballot their members to see if they accept or reject the offer.

The offer

From 1 April 2023:

Pay update—offer rejected and first wave of school strikes to go ahead

All schools in Edinburgh to close on 26, 27 and 28 September due to strike action

Unison members working in schools in Edinburgh will be on strike on 26, 27 and 28 September. This is the first wave of strikes in the fight for a fair pay deal for local government workers across Scotland, with workers in schools across Scotland striking on these dates.

Here, we address the frequently asked questions. Let us know if you have any others by commenting below and we’ll answer them here. We’ve split the details in to what is happening in Edinburgh and the national context.

In Edinburgh

What happens on the strike days?

Pay 2023: COSLA refuse request for more money for a fair deal

Time to strike as councillors refuse a decent pay offer for council workers

On Tuesday Unite, Unison and GMB met with COSLA to discuss progress on our pay claim. We requested for the second time in a week that the Scottish Joint Council (SJC – the three unions and the councillors representing the employers’ side) approach the Scottish Government for additional monies to improve the pay offer to give a decent pay rise for local government workers.

Councillors of all parties voted against this motion—refusing to go to the government for more money, despite understanding there is not enough in the pot. The COSLA Leaders—consisting of Council Leaders of all councils in Scotland—had already voted to not go to the government for more money at their meeting last Friday.

This made it clear that the trade unions have no other way to secure a pay fair deal, but to ballot our members to take industrial action.

Unite members reject COSLA pay offer

84% vote to reject—now we prepare to strike

Unite’s consultative ballot results are in and 84% of members in local government across Scotland have voted to reject the pay offer. This sends a clear message to COSLA that this must be improved.

Thanks to all who voted. If you did not receive a ballot, check your contact details by logging into MyUnite or calling 0131 556 9676.

Get ready for next year

Closures

The offer

In Edinburgh

What happens next?