Scottish council workers to ballot for strike over pay
During July and August, Scotland’s council workers will be balloted by their trade unions on industrial action over the local government employers (CoSLA) offer of a 1% for current financial year 2013/14 and the introduction of the Scottish Living Wage (SLW) of £7.50. UNISON and UNITE members rejected the offer in consultative ballots earlier in the year and the unions have at last moved up a gear and begun the official industrial action processes.
Both UNISON (the largest union) and UNITE recommended that their members reject the offer in their consultation ballots, with the GMB advising their members that it was the best which could be achieved through negotiation. At this stage it is unclear whether the GMB will participate in any action.
Council workers have not had a pay rise for two years, with minuscule rises in the years before. The introduction of the SLW is welcome however the fact that it is to be implemented locally by the 32 councils rather than through a national scheme means that future uplifts are not guaranteed.
Also, some councils may not even consolidate the new rate into basic pay or their grading structure but implement as a supplement to current pay.
pay cuts
Since the financial crisis of 2009, council workers have seen their living standards have been cut by at least 15% due to inflation. With inflation still running at 3% per year the CoSLA offer remains a real terms pay cut.
To make matters worse, the Bank of England predict that inflation will rise during the rest of 2013. Even then, headline inflation figures do not show the full impact on living standards on the lower paid.
Headline rates are averages of many factors – but price rises in essentials such as food, electricity and gas have consistently exceeded the headline rate. Obviously all these take a greater share of lower than higher incomes.
At the same time the FTSE 100 directors’ pay rose by 12% in 2011 to an average remuneration package for worth £4.8m. The estimated wealth of the UK’s 1000 richest people has increased to its highest level ever.
Changes to the tax and benefit system are also impacting on the income of many council workers.
There have been a wide variety of changes which have hit workers including the decisions to up rate all benefits and tax credits with CPI (rather than RPI), increasing the Working Tax Credit working hours requirement for couples and reducing the proportion of costs covered by the childcare element of Working Tax Credit.
Council workers must now fight back and defend their living standards. The union leaderships must put a clear programme of action before the members to show that the unions are determined to conduct a serious dispute.
Many branch activists across the country know that this is the only way to push the employers into offering an acceptable pay rise.
An initial programme of action over a six-week period starting with a national one-day strike of all Unison local government workers on the 5th September, should there be a majority for action, has been agreed. This will be followed by regional action and then another one-day strike. Glasgow City Unison proposed a programme of escalating action beginning with a 1 day, 2 days and then a 3 day strike over the six weeks. The unions’ claim is for at least £1,000 for each worker – let’s fight for it!
Any action would begin in late August or early September and should be co-ordinated with strike action being taken by other trade unions in the public sector.
