Falkirk bin strikes to begin

Waste collection staff in Falkirk are to strike from today over pay.

It's after workers voted for industrial action.

Emergency talks to try and resolve the dispute didn't result in a deal.

Industrial action in Falkirk will end on 31st August.

Meanwhile, Stirling and Clackmannanshire waste collection workers begin industrial action this Friday.

Unite industrial officer Wendy Dunsmore said: "It's a sad indictment that council workers in Scotland are being offered substantially less than their counterparts in England.

"The cold hard reality is that inflation and energy costs are soaring - and they are predicted to rise even higher. The 5% today will not be worth the same in a matter of months when the cost of living crisis will bite even harder.

"The offer on the table just doesn't help the lowest paid make ends meet."

Johanna Baxter, UNISON Scotland’s head of local government, said: “It was a very long meeting but unfortunately there has been no breakthrough and we are a long way from a pay offer that we would be able to recommend to our members. 

“COSLA negotiated within the cost envelope that leaders mandated them but that simply isn’t enough and goes nowhere near matching the pay offer provided to council workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  

“The only thing that both parties could agree on is that we need the urgent intervention from the Deputy First Minister to put additional funding in place and both will be writing to the Deputy First Minister to that effect today.”  

GMB Scotland senior organiser Keir Greenaway said: "The fact that Cosla couldn't even commit to the basic principle of a flat rate offer which would help the lowest paid is bitterly disappointing and frankly shameful.

"Our members are angry about the lack of value being shown to them by political leaders and scared about the prospect of pay that doesn't confront a cost of living crisis that's getting worse by the week."