Cosla tables new council pay offer in bid to avert bin strikes

Waste workers walked out in Edinburgh for 12 days during the city’s festival season in 2022, leading to mounds of rubbish littering the streets.

Colette Hunter, Unison’s local government committee chairwoman, said on Wednesday that a repeat of those scenes across Scotland was likely unless Cosla made a better offer.

The union’s head of local government, David O’Connor said it would consider the proposal, but added it should not have taken the threat of a strike to jolt Cosla into action.

“We clearly have a way to go to reach an agreement,” he said. “However, we want to do everything we can to avoid strikes.

“We should not have to threaten rubbish piling up in the streets just to get a revised pay offer on the table.”

Unite said its local government committee would meet to consider the offer on Monday.

Industrial officer Graham McNab said: “We are clear that the present situation, whereby Unite has a strike mandate across 16 councils in waste and cleansing services, would not have developed if Cosla had properly and seriously engaged with the trade unions at a far earlier stage.”