Scotland strikes to continue as unions reject offeron August 29, 2022 at 5:05 pm

A new pay deal has been made to try to settle a council pay dispute that has led to bin strikes around Scotland.

Three unions involved in negotiations with local authority umbrella body Cosla are now discussing the offer.

Bin strikes have hit two thirds of Scotland’s 32 councils and rubbish is building up in many town and city centres.

Hundreds of schools and nurseries are scheduled to close for three days next week as part of the industrial action.

Details of the offer have not yet been made public.

Unions are seeking an agreement similar to the one made to council workers in England, which included a £1,925 flat rate pay increase.

They say that offering a percentage pay rise would mean the most money would go to the best paid staff.

If the new offer is accepted by the unions they will then put it to their members. The current round of strikes is due to end on Wednesday in many local authority areas, and at 04:59 in Edinburgh.

The first bin strike began in the capital city on 18 August, in the midst of festival season, after the unions – the GMB, Unite and Unison – rejected an initial pay offer equivalent to a 3.5% increase.

It escalated last week when refuse workers at a further 20 local authorities, including Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee, walked out despite a revised 5% offer.

If the action is not called off, a second wave of strikes, which will include school and nursery closures, is due to begin next week in a bid to “achieve a significantly improved pay offer”.

Cosla spokeswoman Katie Hagmann refused to confirm the offer had been made, but said: “We remain in intense active discussions with our trade union colleagues.”

By Angie Brown, BBC Scotland Edinburgh reporter

The noxious ooze now covering Edinburgh’s city centre streets from leaking bins full of rotting mountains of rubbish is quite startling.

Not only is it now quite hard to dodge these massive middens, as the Scots call them, but it is almost impossible to avoid walking through the rivulets of slime washing over our pavements in Auld Reekie.

I tasted the nastiness of this when I by mistake touched my bike wheel and caught a whiff of the worst smell on my hands that I had ever encountered.

In the first few days of the strike, litter was swirling around in our narrow cobbled streets in the Old Town and I remember being quite horrified when the inside of a brown-smeared vegetarian haggis packet slapped me in the face.

Now all that rubbish is stuck to the ground – trampled and glued to the pavements by I don’t know what – causing a layer of detritus you might expect from the days hundreds of years ago when Edinburgh folk threw their rubbish out of their tenement windows shouting “gardyloo”.

The Scottish government has given an additional £140m to councils to help fund a pay increase for staff. and urged both sides to seek a “fair resolution” to the dispute.

Ben MacPherson, minister for social security and local government, told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme that after “constructive discussions over recent days” Cosla had met with local government leaders to discuss a “potential proposition”.  

However, he said: “It would not be appropriate for the Scottish government to comment further beyond continuing to encourage both sides to continue to seek that fair resolution to the dispute that we all want to see as soon as possible.”

Mr MacPherson added: “We are not the employer in this situation but we’re engaged with local government leaders and we want to see a resolution to this just like everyone else.” 

Meanwhile, City of Edinburgh Council said additional resources would be deployed to support the clean up on Tuesday, when the strike ends in the capital.

Council leader Cammy Day said: “This dispute has brought the value of our waste and cleansing teams – and their right to fair wage – into sharp focus and I’m delighted they’ll be back out from Tuesday, helping to return our city to its best.

“While they’ll be working hard to catch up on collections and making every effort to collect litter across the city, it’ll take time for things to return to normal.

“Please bear with them as they do so and, if you can store your extra waste safely for a little longer or are able to book an appointment at a recycling centre, please do so.”

Residents are being asked to put their bins out as normal on their scheduled collection day, when extra waste will be collected if it is bagged.

Public Health Scotland has warned of a human health risk from overflowing waste, and advised councils to decontaminate areas where bins have overflowed.

Professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh Linda Bauld told BBC Scotland their concerns included pests and vermin that are attracted to waste, bacteria, and the effects on surface water.

“There certainly could be an opportunity for germs and bacteria to spread if we don’t sort this out,” she said.

She warned people not to touch the waste.

“I know people are trying to still shove things in the bins if there is a bit of space – don’t do that and if you do please use a hand sanitiser or wash your hands,” Prof Bauld added.