UNION bosses have said their members feel ‘betrayed’ by Glasgow City Council over their apparent failure to settle equal pay claims.

Unison Glasgow City Branch is now balloting members for strike action after losing confidence in the authority’s ability to settle the claims after months of talks.

However, council bosses claimed the union has misled its members over the reality of the situation.

In response to Unison stating that the council negotiators said they “wished to cancel all further talks” and produce their own offer later in the year, a council spokesman said: “This is simply untrue.

“The Council has committed to make an offer in December, which it will do, and we are committed to discuss the component parts of that offer prior to that.

“We have discussed this with the claimants’ representatives a number of times – most recently today.

They added: “It is not at all clear why they continually insist on misleading their members. The fact remains that the council’s equal pay team is working as fast as possible on this.

“Unison knows that strike action cannot possibly make this process move any faster, given they signed up to negotiations until the end of the year.

“Therefore, putting vulnerable people at risk by calling a strike which cannot possibly change the timescale all claimants agreed to cannot be justified.”

UNISON Branch Chair Carol Ball said: “In light of the Councils failure there is no alternative other than to now formally ballot members in our branch on strike action.

“The purpose of strike action would be to force the Council to negotiate and agree a proper settlement package within an acceptable timescale. The branch is now balloting all 2,000 UNISON members in Cordia and all 2,700 UNISON members in Education?'

UNISON Homecarer, Denise Phillips stated: “After years of unfair treatment by the Council they must now pay up. They have stolen wages from thousands of us for over a decade. And now they have let us down badly again by walking away from talking.”