John Swinney has been accused of ‘sitting on his hands’ as he warned there is no money available to head off the threat of widespread bin strikes.
Council leaders will today hold emergency talks on the looming crisis after all three trade unions representing cleansing and recycling workers rejected a 3.2 per cent pay rise.
The SNP-led local government body Cosla estimates it would cost £120million to raise the offer to the 4 per cent sought by unions for all council staff – money councils don’t have.
The First Minister is under pressure to intervene to avoid a repeat of the 2022 bin strike that saw fermenting garbage piled up across Scotland at the peak of the tourist season.
But yesterday he insisted it was for councils and unions to resolve the dispute.
John Swinney has refused to intervene in the looming crisis which will likely see bin men strike across Scotland
Speaking in Dunfermline after announcing £42 million for zero-emission electric buses, Mr Swinney said: ‘There are huge pressures on the public finances and the government’s budget has been fully allocated.
‘The Government has got enormous constraints in which it’s operating in relation to public finances. I have to live in the reality of the resources we’ve got available to us.’ He repeatedly refused to intervene, despite unions demanding he do so, although he said he would continue to engage with councils.
‘This is fundamentally a negotiation between local authorities and their trade union counterparts, and it’s important that I encourage those negotiations to come to a positive resolution.
‘Nobody wants to see strike action taking its course – I certainly don’t want to see that – and I would encourage both local authorities and trade unions to come together to resolve these issues and to avoid industrial action by resolving the pay claim.’
He hinted the impasse could be broken if Westminster gave Holyrood more money, something which could potentially happen at the autumn budget.
Calling for a ‘significant improvement’ in Westminster spending, he said: ‘Austerity has gone on for far too long. It’s causing real damage to the delivery of public services.
‘There’s a public finance pressure that exists in Scotland today. It will be addressed if there’s an improvement in the public investments made by the United Kingdom Government.’
Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services, said John Swinney’s refusal to intervene in the escalating council pay dispute is sabotaging any hope of a resolution.
Mr Swinney has blamed Westminster ‘austerity’ for the lack of cash needed to fund a pay increase for waste collectors
Waste could be piled high in Scotland’s streets if a pay agreement is not reached soon between council chiefs and unions
He said: ‘Council workers in England and Wales have already been offered a pay rise substantially better than what is on the table here while the new UK government is suggesting other public sector workers can expect above inflation rises.
‘Our local authorities are delusional if they believe workers in Scotland will accept anything less and if they cannot fund a comparable offer then they have nowhere to turn but the Scottish Government.
‘The first minister must act immediately to help find a resolution and avert the threat of disruption to frontline council services delivered by our members and relied on by communities up and down the country.
‘As this dispute continues, ministers can no longer sit on their hands and look the other way.’
But with councils strapped for cash now, and unions determined to apply maximum pressure during the Edinburgh Fringe, a bin strike in August appears increasingly likely.
Unison rejected the Cosla pay offer on Friday and the GMB and Unite did so on Monday.
Unite warned it meant the country faced a ‘stinking summer’ and ‘mountains of rubbish’.
Cosla said it was ‘extremely disappointed’, as the deal was ‘at the very limit of affordability’.
In a last-ditch attempt to avoid industrial action, the leaders of Scotland’s 32 councils are due to hold an online meeting this morning to discuss possible ways forward.
Options include councils and unions jointly lobbying the Scottish Government for more cash, and – as a sop to SNP council leaders – also lobbying the UK Government.
As part of the process, unions could be asked to suspend the threat of strike action.
But one leader said there was little chance unions would call off the strike, as bringing misery to the Edinburgh Fringe was their ‘trump card’ for extracting money from ministers.
The source said it was inevitable that Mr Swinney would blink, as the embarrassment caused by the 2022 bin strike in the Capital had been intolerable.
The 3.2 per cent offer for Scotland’s 250,000 local government staff is worth £480m this year. Matching the 4 per cent offered to council staff in England costs £120 million more.
Although refuse collectors are currently threatening to strike, unions also intend to ballot other staff in the coming weeks, including school workers, and further strikes are possible.
Holyrood’s opposition parties are demanding Mr Swinney intervene as they say years of SNP cuts to council budgets are behind the pay dispute.
GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour, who yesterday wrote to Mr Swinney urging him to break the deadlock, said: ‘Cosla claims an improved offer is impossible.
‘If the Scottish Government does not come to the table, there will be no meaningful discussions, no route to a resolution and no chance of halting strike action.’
