Dear GMB Member,
In December we submitted our pay demands into COSLA for all local government workers from April 2021 onwards.
Our demands were about making sure you were rewarded for the work done throughout this pandemic to keep this country running. Whether it’s caring for our most vulnerable, ensuring our schools are clean and safe, picking up refuse from every house in Scotland or every vital job local government workers provide to their community… the list is endless.
For GMB pay is about respect and if politicians in the Scottish Parliament or in council chambers across Scotland value their workforce they will meet our demands of:
- £2000 increase to annual salary or a 6% rise (Whichever is greater).
- Care workers to have their SSSC fees paid for by employers. This is a fee all care & some education staff must pay to work, its time employers paid this.
- A reduction to the working week with no drop in pay.
Last week we met with COLSA for the first time despite submitting the claim 2 months ago and all 3 trade unions were disappointed that council leaders do not want to talk about pay until March because the Scottish Government have not set their budget yet.
This is a kick in the teeth to every single council worker who is expecting a pay rise in April and it is time the Scottish Government and Council leaders respected council workers and met with your GMB reps to sort this out.
The joint trade unions have written to every council leader to express our anger and demand they meet with us soon, see a copy of the letter here https://tinyurl.com/y9q53bo6
Make sure you share this communication with all your colleagues as we will be in touch next week with an update to the letter and if there is no movement, we need your help to make these politicians respect the work you do.
This is your pay and the more union members are involved the more likely we are to get what we deserve so please make sure everyone you work with is in the GMB. They can join online by going to www.gmb.org.uk/join
If you want to get more involved in the pay campaign in your workplace then let me know by giving me your details here and we will be in touch https://tinyurl.com/yc5szs3m
Drew Duffy
Senior Organiser
GMB Scotland
Posted: 25th February 2021