2018 Pay Claim Update

We received an update from UNISON Scotland earlier this week, which has provided some information on the status of our 2018 pay claim.

Meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance

UNISON Scotland met with Derek Mackay, on 26 June. The meeting went well and as expected – constructive but not conclusive.  The Scottish Government do not have a seat at our negotiating table and as such Derek Mackay cannot be seen to be negotiating local government pay – so UNISON Scotland did not anticipate walking out of that meeting with a swag of cash; this is about applying political pressure.  However we had a robust and respectful debate and he has committed to meeting again, this time jointly with COSLA.  We wrote to him again following the meeting and he has replied to that. We know that COSLA representatives have also met with him to press for additional funding to ensure parity across local government – they also had a constructive exchange of views and he has committed to going back to them following their representations.

‘Education: It’s ONE Team’ campaign & response from Deputy First Minister, John Swinney

UNISON Scotland and the Branch thank all the school support staff who completed the ‘Education – It’s ONE Team’ postcards. Negotiating colleague had requested a meeting with John Swinney to hand over the postcards from across Scotland, and having had no response from him at all, the Branch posted our postcards directly to Parliament before the meeting with Derek Mackay.  The response from John Swinney was disappointing to say the least; you can read it below.

‘Local Government: It’s ONE Team’ - Next steps of the campaign

Whilst COSLA have been consistent in their agreement with us about the need to uphold the principle of parity across the local government bargaining groups we need to give power to their elbow in their discussions with the Scottish Government and remind them that we will not give up on this. 

It was therefore agreed by our colleagues at UNISON Scotland to extend the postcard campaign to the whole of the Local Government membership.  To this end, a new postcard to the President of CoSLA has been produced for all members to signs which we will return to her all together in advance of the next meeting with them on August 31^st.   Any improvement to the pay offer would have to be put to this meeting and signed off there;  the intention therefore is to ensure they know our members strength of feeling before any decisions are taken.

Our Council Stewards will get a quantity of cards in the coming days for you to sign and return back to them. They’ll then get them to the Branch Office and we’ll then send them all back to CoSLA in good time for their meeting. It’s quite a logistical exercise to get them out and back so if you don’t receive one in the next few days, please leave a message or email the Branch Office at office@unison-angus.org.uk and we’ll get one to you.

We’ll receive a further update from UNISON Scotland after the CoSLA meeting on the 31^st of this month: information will be posted here and on the blog.