Fife bin strikes: Threat of potential industrial action remains as Unison members reject latest pay offer

Members of the union, including refuse and recycling centre workers, voted by 86 per cent to reject the offer from Cosla, the body representing Scotland’s councils, this week.

The latest offer in the pay dispute, described by Cosla as “fair and meaningful”, includes an hourly uplift of £0.67 or a 3.6 per cent increase, whichever is higher.

However, Unison said it “falls short of expectations” given the 25 per cent real-terms pay cut over the past 14 years, and that “council workers in Scotland are angry their pay offer is not in line with other public service workers, many of whom have been given 5.5 per cent pay rises.”

The union has mandates for strike action by waste workers, which would impact bin collections and community recycling centres, at 13 councils, including Fife.

Unison’s local government committee will discuss the next steps in the coming days.

Meanwhile, members of the GMB union have already accepted the latest offer made by Cosla, which came just days before planned strike action had been due to take place last month.

A Cosla spokesperson said: “We are deeply disappointed Unison have rejected our latest strong, above inflation, pay offer. This is the absolute limit of affordability for local government and exhausts all available funding from Scottish Government.

“Local government have a responsibility to ensure sustainable service delivery for communities. We are clear that increasing the value of any pay offer would have serious consequences. We remain concerned that Unison’s expectations cannot be met without further unpalatable difficult decisions.

“We are aware that communities will be concerned about the potential impact of industrial action on the most vulnerable. We would urge Unison to reconsider our strong offer which has an overall value of 4.27 per cent.”