By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 8 May 2012
Local government unions in Scotland have challenged the two-year public sector pay freeze by tabling a pay claim for this year.
Unison, Unite and the GMB are calling for a pay floor of £7.20 an hour for all local government workers in Scotland – equivalent to the ‘living wage’ rate – plus a £1,000 flat rate payment for all, designed to improve the relative position of the lowest-paid staff.
Dougie Black, Unison Scottish organiser and secretary of the union side in the negotiations, told Public Finance: ‘The anniversary date for the claim is from April 1 of this year, so it runs to March 2013. It is for inside the pay freeze period.’
But the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, representing the employers, were adamant today that the pay freeze would remain in place until April next year. ‘The bottom line is that pay in local government across all of the workforce is settled until April 2013,’ a spokesman said.
The two sides are due to meet for preliminary talks this afternoon, with Cosla insisting that the agenda concerned pay and conditions beyond the period of the freeze. Asked whether it would be in order to discuss the unions’ 2012/13 claims, the Cosla spokesman said: ‘I wouldn’t have thought so.’
Nevertheless, union leaders are keen to highlight what they see as the unfair burden of the freeze borne by the lowest-paid public workers. Jackson Cullinane of Unite called the claim ‘fair and affordable’, while Alex McLuckie of the GMB said the real-terms pay of council staff had been falling behind that of other workers.
Black said: ‘The lowest paid have been hit the hardest. While the cost of living has risen sharply, their pay has stayed the same. Families are already struggling to make ends meet and if their pay is frozen for a second year and costs remain high, whole families will be pushed further into poverty.’
Despite the pay freeze, the ‘living wage’ campaign has scored some successes, with 11 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities already implementing it, six more planning to pay it in the current year and a further two committed in principle.
Meanwhile, some 30,000 Scottish members of the Public & Commercial Services union, employed by the UK and Scottish governments, are due to strike on Thursday as part of a UK-wide protest over Westminster’s reforms of civil service pensions.
