A strike that has covered parts of Edinburgh with rubbish and tarnished the return of the Scottish capital’s international festival of culture, is set to spread to 13 other local authorities after council leaders and unions failed to reach a wage agreement.
Unison, the UK’s biggest public services union, said on Wednesday it would have accepted the 5 per cent uplift offered by the government were it not for the cost of living crisis, which has added to the financial strain on Scottish workers.
Citigroup this week said UK inflation could peak at more than 18 per cent next year, as European gas prices set a new record.
The escalation of industrial action in Scotland is the latest in a wave of walkouts across the UK as workers battle for higher wages as living costs continue to rise sharply.
“This is a national crisis playing out in Edinburgh’s streets during our busiest and most important time of the year,” said Edinburgh council leader Cammy Day of the opposition Labour party. “We need the Scottish government to get back round the table.”
The strike has also fed into pre-existing disputes in Scotland about the funding of local government, which in Edinburgh has attracted attention as international visitors have gathered for the first full return of the Edinburgh festival after two years of Covid-19 restrictions.
Speaking at a festival event on Wednesday, Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said that while she understood workers’ demands during a time of a cost of living crisis and high inflation, her government was constrained to act by the need to balance its budget.
“I would love to be able to offer pay rises that were in line with inflation,” she said in response to a question about a pay dispute at NHS Scotland.
The build-up of rubbish in premier tourist sites has embarrassed city leaders, while opposition parties criticised the Scottish National party government, saying it had cut funding for local authorities. In turn, the administration in Edinburgh has blamed the government in London for tightening budgets.
The other unions involved in the dispute with Cosla, the body representing councils across Scotland that collectively spend £19bn a year and account for close to 10 per cent of jobs, are Unite and GMB.
Unison said it had given notice of the walkouts by support staff at schools and nurseries from September 6, while Unite confirmed strikes by bin collectors and other waste services workers would spread to Glasgow and Aberdeen, among other areas.
While the dispute is between councils and unions, the Scottish government had come under increasing pressure to intervene. Unison said John Swinney, deputy first minister, was due to meet union and Cosla representatives later on Wednesday.
Unite argued that, for more than half of local government workers in Scotland, the 5 per cent pay offer was inferior to that given to counterparts in England, by between £700 and £1,000. Unison said it had originally asked for a £3,000 flat rate uplift.
The Scottish government said it had provided an extra £140mn to help give staff a bigger pay rise, which equated to more than half of what Cosla needed to make the 5 per cent offer.
Scotland’s budget deficit was £23.7bn, or 12.3 per cent of gross domestic product, in 2021, according to data released on Wednesday. The Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) report showed that Scotland accounted for 9.2 per cent of total UK public sector expenditure, with £17,793 spent per person — almost £2,000 greater than the UK average.
Source: Economy - ft.com
