Glasgow city council has reached an agreement with the trade union Unison over pay and grading, averting one of the UK’s biggest ever fire-and-rehire exercises.
Talks between the council and the GMB, Unite and Unison unions previously broke down when Unison refused to ballot its members on a new pay and grading system, designed to resolve historical equal pay issues.
The collapse of talks prompted the council to contact 23,000 workers, its entire non-teaching staff, at the end of last month to inform them they were at risk of being dismissed and reappointed, many on less favourable terms. The move led to significant backlash from opposition parties, unions and council employees.
The original proposal that led Unison to walk out of negotiations would have resulted in wage cuts for 11% of staff, but on Monday the council agreed to protect their pay for three years.
Unison said many issues remained unresolved and that negotiations would continue, but that it would now ballot its members this month. The council has agreed to continue negotiating on issues including the equality impacts of the new pay structure.
Ricky Bell, the leader of Glasgow city council, said he was “delighted that we have been able to reach agreement with Unison” and “remove the unpalatable prospect of fire-and-rehire”.
“This is a strong and fair deal,” he added. “Both GMB and Unite have already agreed to take it to their members and, with all three unions now engaging with their memberships, we are moving closer to the outcome we have always wanted to achieve: ending pay discrimination in Glasgow city council once and for all.”
Bell emphasised there was no further money to come as part of the package, but said he looked forward to seeing the outcome of the union ballots. He thanked the Scottish government for additional support to help “unlock [the] agreement”.
Chris Sermanni, Unison’s Glasgow city branch secretary, said: “Unison stood firm because Glasgow’s workers deserved better than what was originally put on the table.
“That position has secured significant movement. There’s now a path for Unison members to give their verdict without the immediate threat of dismissal and re-engagement hanging over them.
“The period ahead will be used to keep fighting to give the whole workforce the information they need to make their decision.”
The ballot will last four weeks, with a timeline to be laid out in the coming days.
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