Scots school support staff strike plans halted after pay offer accepted

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Scots school support staff have voted to accept the latest pay offer, bringing industrial action to an end. The long-running pay dispute has been brought to a close after Unison members voted to accept an improved pay offer following strike action last month.

Members of Unison across all of Scotland’s councils voted to accept the latest offer by a margin of 69.6% to 30.4% among those who voted and the raise will be backdated to April 2023.Unison was the last union to accept a pay deal after the Unite and GMB unions had already agreed to a deal.The accepted offer has various improvements on rejected ones including a timetable for all local government staff to be paid a minimum of £15 per hour by 2026, and the full deal being backdated to April 2023 rather than some uplifts only happening in January 2024.Last week, the union released a report showing members who work in schools are having to purchase necessary items for pupils, despite struggling with rising living costs themselves.Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland’s head of local government, said: “This deal is long overdue and was hard fought for by Unison members.“Cosla urgently need to review the bargaining process to ensure that future pay negotiations progress quickly and with as little disruption as possible.“The improvements secured by Unison in these negotiations help address low pay and support those in the squeezed middle.“Delivering a minimum rate of pay of £15 per hour for all local government workers by April 2026 will go a long way to tackling low pay and will make a real different to people’s lives.“Backdating the full offer to April 1 2023 means those on very modest incomes are protected during the cost-of-living crisis, too.“It was Unison members who stood