Striking council staff stage pay protest outside Swinney’s office

Trade union members protesting over council workers’ pay have taken their fight to John Swinney’s office in a bid to encourage the First Minister to step in and end the dispute.

Members of Unison staged a protest outside Mr Swinney’s constituency office in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, on Thursday.

It comes as Unison members in the Perth and Kinross area are taking part in a two-week strike which has closed a number of schools, with others partially open.

Around 40 people including children were on the picket line on Thursday, holding Unison banners and signs calling for “Fair Pay Now”.

The protest comes despite two other unions representing council staff, Unite and GMB Scotland, accepting the pay deal offered by local government leaders at Cosla.

That gives workers either a 3.6% increase or a 67p per hour rise, whichever is higher, with the pay deal now implemented.

Mr Swinney has already condemned the “utterly unacceptable” targeting of his constituency.

With non-teaching school staff taking part in the protest, Mr Swinney said education in his constituency “has been disrupted”.

He said: “My constituents have been singled out for treatment just because their MSP is First Minister, and I find that completely unacceptable.”

But Unison Perth and Kinross branch secretary Stuart Hope insisted the First Minister could end the dispute by providing further cash for councils to fund workers’ pay – despite Mr Swinney having already declared there is no more money available.

Mr Hope said: “John Swinney is the one who can end this dispute as most council funding comes from the Scottish Government.

“Education staff do not want to close schools. They all love their jobs and would prefer to be supporting children.

“The way to solve this is for Cosla, the Scottish Government and the union to sit down in the same room and talk.

“Staff need to be valued and treated equally to other public sector workers with the same level of investment.”

Finance and Local Government Secretary Shona Robison said: “While this Government respects workers’ rights, no-one’s interests are served by industrial action which disrupts children and young people attending schools and nurseries in Perth and Kinross.

“I very much appreciate and understand parents’ concerns. I want to assure them that we worked hard over the summer with Cosla and the unions to agree a pay deal. The deal means that the lowest paid council workers, including Unison members, receive a 5.63% pay increase.

“It is a fair pay deal, and I hope that Unison members will now join their GMB and Unite colleagues and accept it and end these unnecessary strikes. Now that local government workers in England have agreed a lower pay deal, it’s difficult to understand why this action is continuing.”

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 spokesperson said the pay award met the “collective requests of Unison and our other two unions”, adding council leaders had recently agreed to implement it so employees receive the rise “without further delay”.

However Cosla said: “Implementation of the pay award does not mean that discussions will end, and Cosla remains fully committed to the negotiation process with all three trade unions.

“We have been actively seeking to arrange formal meetings and contact has been maintained between Cosla and union officials as we seek to understand Unison’s aspirations for an agreed settlement within the funding envelope available.”