Council is letting staff down again says worker after fire and rehire plans

Talks earlier this week between the council and the GMB, Unison and Unite unions fell apart on Wednesday when Unison said it would not ballot its members on a proposed new pay offer.

The council said its new proposals would protect those workers who set to lose out for an extra six months, and it accused Unison of “betraying” members by not giving them the chance to vote on it.

In response, Unison’s education convener Sylvia Haughey told BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast the council was using “bullying tactics”.

She said: “We haven’t betrayed anyone, we certainly haven’t betrayed our members. We are out fighting for our members.

“We are fighting for the members who are in detriment who are losing big financial amounts, whether its £200 or £12,000.

“We have not walked away from anything. We are willing to speak to the council at any time.”

In a statement on Wednesday, the council’s director of communications and corporate governance Colin Edgar said the breakdown of talks meant there was now “no agreed way forward between the council and the joint trade unions”.

“The council has gone as far as it can,” said Edgar. “The new pay and grading scheme removes unequal pay and sees pay rise or stay the same for 90% of staff – the council’s total pay bill will be substantially higher.

“For those staff who are in detriment our joint trade unions negotiated an increase in pay protection from six months to 12 months.”