No more money available for local government pay, says Robison

Scotland’s Finance Secretary has said there “simply is no more money” to fund pay deals for local government workers amid strikes which have closed schools in John Swinney’s constituency.

Trade union Unison called the action targeting the First Minister’s seat over the next two weeks after members working in non-teaching roles in schools rejected a pay offer from local authority body Cosla.

The deal would have increased pay by 67p an hour or 3.6%, whichever was higher, and was accepted by GMB and Unite, and council leaders voted to impose the increase on staff.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison said she takes the strike “incredibly seriously” because of the impact it is having on parents and children, but said the industrial action is “in no-one’s interests”.

She told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “I would certainly encourage dialogue to continue between Cosla and Unison.

“A solution has to be found, but that cannot be a solution based on more money this year, because there simply is no more money available this year.

“So the solution, I think, is really looking forward to the next year and beyond, and the potential for multi-year deals between local government and their unions.

“But I have to be clear, the result of this industrial action and all of the disruption will not be more money, because there simply is none.”

Ms Robison said “difficult decisions” had to be taken to provide the money that is already on the table.

She said: “I went to Parliament to set out the difficult decisions that we have had to take in order to make sure that we are able to support this pay deal, £78 million that we’ve provided. Local government has worked hard to provide resources as well.”

In a statement published on its website, Perth and Kinross Council said all primary schools, nurseries, intensive support settings and two secondary schools will be closed on Monday.

Stuart Hope, Unison branch secretary in Perth and Kinross, said it was a “very difficult decision” to close the schools but that members feel they have had enough.

He told BBC Radio Scotland: “Our members are kind of speaking in force these next couple of weeks to say that they feel undervalued and they feel underpaid.”

He added: “They deserve better deals. They deserve better pay and they deserve to be more valued by the Scottish Government.”

He also warned that strike action could spread to every council in Scotland if a resolution is not reached.

“We have 17 other mandates in place across Scotland, then also preparation under way for an all-member ballot,” he said.

“So that would be every council worker, local government council worker and Unison member across Scotland balloted for strike action.

“If that’s a successful ballot, then we could be looking at strike action and industrial action in every area of every council in Scotland.”

He said that after the current two weeks of industrial action are out of the way the union will decide on the next steps.

Perth and Kinross Council was unable to carry out risk assessments of primary schools and nurseries due to the October holidays, meaning facilities could not open immediately.

The council said schools could open later this week, but the situation is likely to remain “fluid” for the duration of the action, and “may change for individual schools on a day-to-day basis”.

It said remote learning will be provided when schools are closed to pupils because teachers are not taking part in the industrial action.

The First Minister has previously described the targeting of his seat as “unacceptable” and said there is “no justification” for it.

He added there is no more money for the Scottish Government to hand local authorities to fund a better deal.

A Cosla spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that Unison has taken industrial action targeted at children and young people, including the most vulnerable in special needs settings.

“Industrial action is in nobody’s interests, and we urge Unison to reconsider our strong offer, which would mean more than half of our workers receive an uplift of 4.27% or better.

“The pay award meets the collective requests of Unison and our other two unions in their joint letter of July 31 2024. It has been accepted by both GMB and Unite.

“Council leaders recently agreed that the pay uplift should be implemented to enable employees to receive their pay increase and backpay without further delay.”

She said Cosla remains “fully committed” to the negotiation process with all three trade unions and has been seeking formal meetings “to understand Unison’s aspirations for an agreed settlement within the funding envelope available”.