Over 70 per cent support minimum cash increase of £1,292

 

Unite, Scotland’s leading trade union, can confirm that its local government membership has voted to accept the revised COSLA pay offer.

 

Unite’s thousands of local government members returned a 71 per cent yes vote in a consultative ballot to accept the revised offer made by COSLA.

 

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “Unite’s members have overwhelmingly voted to accept COSLA’s revised pay offer. A minimum increase of nearly £1,300 for the lowest paid will be a welcome boost to the pay packets of our members who provide vital frontline local services.

 

“Make no mistake that it was down to our members’ guts and determination that an improved pay offer was finally put on the table which will now help to deliver better jobs, pay and conditions for workers across all Scottish councils.”


The offer accepted by Unite’s membership represents a minimum cash increase of £1,292 for the lowest paid council workers, which is equivalent to 5.2 per cent for those earning around £25,000. The Scottish local government living wage will also increase by 5.63 per cent.

 

A minimum increase of 67 pence an hour or 3.6 per cent, whichever is better, will be applied to council workers. This amounts to an average 4.24 per cent increase for a one-year period between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.

  

Graham McNab, Unite’s lead negotiator for local government, said: “Unite’s council representatives once again took the lead in securing a credible pay offer which has been backed by the wider membership. The deal will lift the pay of all council employees above inflation for the first time in years.

 

“Time and again we end up in a summer farce over council pay. Unite wants to be perfectly clear that we want council pay resolved at a far earlier stage in the process. It should not take until the cusp of strike action for COSLA and the Scottish government to come up with a fair pay offer.”

 

The accepted offer represents a significant improvement on the initial one made in May which amounted to 2.2 per cent running from 1 April to 30 September, and two per cent for a 12-month period running from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025. A further 3.2 per cent pay offer was also rejected outright by Unite in July.

  

ENDS

 

Notes to Editor

 

For media enquiries please contact Andrew Brady on 07810157922.

 

Email andrew.brady@unitetheunion.org 

 

Unite Scotland is the country’s biggest and most diverse trade union with around 150,000 members. The union is led in Scotland by Derek Thomson.