The pay offer made to local authority workers would see the top earners at Glasgow City Council get rises of between £7000 and £10,000 while the lowest paid would receive £1000.
Council workers have been offered a deal worth 5% plus cost of living payments for those earning under £39,000.
Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister, and Cosla said they should accept it, but the unions have told the politicians that it doesn’t do enough to help the lowest paid in a cost of living crisis.
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The Government is seeking a meeting today with unions in a bid to break the deadlock that has seen piles of rubbish mounting up in the city centre.
The deal, offered yesterday, would see every local government employee receive a 5% pay rise.
That means the cleansing workers on around £20,000 and the home care workers on similar, would get a rise of £1000 a year.
It also means that senior managers and service directors would get 5% and means someone in charge of a department earning £100,000 a year would get a £5,000 rise.
Five directors at Glasgow City Council are reportedly earning more than £100,000 a year.
The top earners get more. Annemarie O’Donnell, chief executive, reportedly earns £186,000.
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She would get a rise of £9,300. George Gillespie, executive director of neighbourhoods, would get a rise of more than £7300 on his reported £146,500 salary, while Martin Booth, finance director, would see around £7000 added to his reported £141,000 pay packet.
Unite union said that half of Scotland’s 250,000 council workers are earning less than £25,000 a year for a 37-hour week.
They would get a pay rise worth a maximum of £1250 a year before tax, plus a one-off cost of living payment taking it to around £2000 this year.
The cost of living payment is for a limited time so the unions argue that the rise that is consolidated into the wages is disproportionately benefiting those on higher wages than those who are currently struggling with bills.
GMB organiser, Keir Greenaway, put it like this: “It only feathers the nests of service directors”.
The Scottish Government has called for a meeting today with the unions over Cosla’s latest offer.
Nicola Sturgeon said: “I understand the pressures the workers face which is why we have exhausted all options to make more funding available to support those on the lowest incomes.
“If we could go further we would but the Scottish Government budget is finite. I hope trade union members accept the offer.”
Unions however say it does not support those on the lowest incomes.
Mr Greenaway, GMB Scotland Senior Organiser for Public Services, said: “Our members need a flat rate offer because that means more consolidated money goes into the pockets of frontline workers delivering the services our communities depend on.
“Unions have been clear about this from the submission of our initial pay claim and right through negotiations over the weekend - the prospect of a Heads of Service getting four times more money than a bin collector, school cleaner or home carer is simply not credible.”
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