Forbes ‘sincerely hopes’ strike can be averted in council pay dispute

The finance secretary says it is her “sincere hope” that strikes can be averted in the dispute over council workers’ pay, but said the matter is between local authorities and unions.

Kate Forbes said she would continue to encourage both sides to reach a deal to avoid industrial action in more than half of Scotland’s councils.

Workers in a number of different professions are set to strike during the COP26 summit, which takes place in Glasgow in November.

School cleaning, catering, refuse and recycling workers are among those who could strike.

At the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, Forbes responded to an urgent question from Scottish Labour MSP Mark Griffin.

He asked what the Scottish Government was doing to help agree a pay deal acceptable to workers.

Griffin said: “Over half of local government workers earn below £25,000 a year and the current offer doesn’t even bring the lowest paid up to £10 per hour.”

He said the Scottish Government had intervened in pay negotiations for NHS workers and teacher despite not being their direct employers.

Forbes said the local government pay negotiations were between Cosla and the trade unions.

She said: “We have continued to do everything that we can to ensure that there is a fair settlement for local authorities despite the challenges of the pandemic and the constrained fiscal position.

“I will continue to engage and would hope that progress can be made to avert industrial action but also to ensure that there is a fair pay deal.”

Griffin then said the industrial action in November could be the beginning of a “long winter” of school closures and disruption to waste and recycling services.

Forbes said frontline workers were “critically important”, saying the Scottish public sector pay deal was “far fairer” than south of the border.

She said: “I sincerely hope that a resolution is found through the SJC (Scottish Joint Council), which is obviously based on negotiations between the trade unions and Cosla.”