Edinburgh bin strike: Council leader Cammy Day calls for Scottish Government to fund better pay offer

Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Council leaders from across Scotland were holding a special online meeting this morning to discuss the situation after the latest 3.2 per cent offer was rejected by the main council unions Unison, Unite and the GMB.

Rubbish in the streets during the Edinburgh festivals in 2022. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Ahead of the leaders' meeting of council umbrella body Cosla, Cllr Day tweeted: "It’s time to call on the snp @scotgov to get around the table with local gov & unions, to pay a decent pay rise to public service workers."

And he told the Evening News: "Our simple point is that 3.2 per cent, for some local authorities, is more than they budgeted for and anything more than that becomes unaffordable   So my request - and I hope it will be the position of Cosla - is that we need to call the First minister and the Scottish Government to the table to help settle the pay dispute, as they have in the last few years, and bring some ore resources to the table."

He said the unions' rejection of the latest offer was "not unexpected" and he had met this week with representatives from Unite and the GMB, who have the most members among Edinburgh's waste and recycling workforce.

"None of us wants the strike action to happen and disrupt the city, nor do the trade unions want to take strike action, but we absolutely respect the rights of the trade unions to take appropriate industrial action to get decent pay for their members."

A bin strike in August threatens to leave Edinburgh with piles of rubbish in the streets at the city's busiest time of year for tourists, as happened two years ago when waste staff staged a 12-day strike during the Festival. 

Unite has predicted “a stinking Scottish summer” unless more money is found to give council staff a bigger pay rise.

Cllr Day said:  "For the hundreds of thousands of people who make Edinburgh their destination over the summer, to see rubbish piled up at the sides of the road is not a great experience.

"I hope we don't get to that point.  I urge Cosla to move quickly on this and get a settlement in place with the unions and the government as soon as possible.

“We don't want our residents and visitors to suffer during bin strikes. We do want to make sure our workforce can get a decent pay settlement."