UNION members have accepted an improved pay offer that calls off planned bin strikes.

Almost 8 out of ten GMB members voted to approve the deal which offers 5.6% for council workers.

Following the result, the union warned ministers not to blame spending cuts on public sector pay deals.

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The deal gives a minimum rise of 3.6% for all council grades but weighted to give full-time front line staff a rise of £1292, equivalent to 5.6% for the lowest paid.

GMB had planned to call out cleansing and waste staff on strike over the pay dispute with Cosla, the body representing Scotland’s councils.

The strike action was suspended while members were balloted on the deal and has now been called off.

The union said there should not have been delays to reaching an acceptable offer.

Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services, said: “Council leaders’ lack of urgency and stubborn refusal to ask the Scottish Government for support meant negotiations and uncertainty went on far longer than necessary.

“It should not take imminent strike action to deliver a fair offer but, while it came too late, the deal was above inflation for all staff and weighted to benefit frontline workers most.

“That was what the unions had asked for and, given that, it is no surprise our members accepted it.”

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With spending cuts expected the union said the reason is not to fund fair pay deals for public workers.

Greenaway added: “Ministers implying a fair pay offer for our members means cuts to spending are only diverting attention from the real cause of the crisis in our public services.

“We have endured more than a decade of cuts not because of staff being paid fairly but because our governments, at Westminster and Holyrood, have failed to properly fund the public sector.

“Government is about choices but, when our public services are struggling to recruit and retain skilled staff, paying council staff fairly is not part of the problem but part of the solution.”