On 12 January 2018 UNISON, along with the other Scottish Local Government trade unions, submitted a pay claim for a £1,500 flat rate increase to all spinal column points, or 6.5%, whichever is greater (based on a 37 hour working week). This claim includes an above inflation increase plus an element of restoration.
You can read the full detail of the pay claim here and our short bargaining brief explaining it and what happens next here.
We have welcomed the Scottish Government’s stated intention to lift the public sector pay cap for public service workers and have argued that this must apply to local government workers who deliver good public services in local authorities across the country.
We have also asked the Scottish Government for extra funding for local government to ensure your employer can afford to give you a decent pay rise.
The ball is now in our employers hands. We understand that they want to see the detail of the Government’s final budget settlement and then consult CoSLA Leaders before responding to our claim. We do not therefore expect to have a formal response to our claim until the end of March.
So we thought this would be the perfect time for our Local Government members to have their say on their pay – to ask for their views about the claim and they think they might be able to help us get the increase they deserve.
If you are a UNISON member working in Local Government we want to hear from you – please tell us what you think by answering a few short questions here. This will take no more than 2 minutes of your time and will give us valuable information that we can use in negotiations. The deadline for responding is 5pm on Friday 16th March.
Once the employer has responded to our pay claim we will seek members views on the outcome of the talks before anything is agreed.
So, please, take two minutes of your time to fill in our survey. We really need to know what you think.