19 December 2008
By David Scott in Edinburgh Councils in Scotland have broken ranks with the pay negotiating body that represents them to award a 3% increase to thousands of local government workers. Although no official settlement with the trade unions has been reached after a long-running dispute, 29 of the 32 councils have decided to pay the award, Public Finance has learned. Some councils, including Glasgow, will make a payment backdated to April before Christmas, while others are planning to pay the money in January. One senior local government source said it was highly unusual to find councils implementing an award that had not been officially agreed and was not the subject of an official circular instructing them to pay it. ‘Some people are asking what is the point of having collective bargaining if all 32 don’t hold the line and break ranks,’ the source said. The 29 councils decided to go ahead with paying the award after the three unions involved in the negotiations were split over whether to accept. Members of Unison, the biggest local government union, accepted, by a narrow majority, a revised deal of 3% for the current year and 2.5% for 2009/10. However, the offer was rejected by Unite and the GMB. Scotland’s biggest council, Glasgow City, was the first to decide not to wait for the dispute to be resolved by the Scottish Joint Council – comprising representatives of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the three trade unions. The three remaining councils yet to agree to pay the money are said to be ‘reflecting on their position’. Michael Cook, Cosla’s human resources spokesman, told PF that councils felt there was a need to ‘regularise’ the position. He added: ‘The majority have reflected on this and have now decided to take a pragmatic position by responding to the largest union, and to a swathe of evidence showing that non-union staff also wish to accept the money sooner rather than later.’ Douglas Black, a senior official of Unison and the lead union negotiator, said: ‘I am hopeful we may still resolve this on the trade union side, but it requires the two other unions to accept the offer.’
PFdec2008
