Key facts
- Glasgow City Council has paused its plan to fire and rehire over 23,000 non-teaching staff.
- The council had threatened to dismiss staff and rehire them on new contracts from January 1.
- The plan was a response to failed negotiations over a new pay and grading system to address equal pay issues.
- The new system would have seen 11% of staff face wage cuts, with the highest drop around £11,500.
- The Scottish government intervened, urging the council and unions to continue negotiations.
- Unions welcomed the pause and the Scottish government's stance against fire and rehire tactics.
Glasgow City Council has agreed to pause its controversial plan to fire and rehire more than 23,000 non-teaching staff, following intervention from the Scottish government. The council had threatened to dismiss employees and offer them new contracts from January 1 after pay talks with unions broke down.
Negotiations concerned a new pay and grading system designed to replace one found to discriminate against mostly women workers. While the council stated the new scheme would result in pay rises or no change for 90% of staff, it would lead to wage cuts for 11% of employees, with the highest drop expected to be around £11,500. Unions, including GMB, Unison, and Unite, had been in discussions with the council for years.
Talks earlier in the week collapsed when Unison refused to ballot its members on a proposed new pay offer. The council's director of communications, Colin Edgar, claimed Unison had "betrayed its own members" by not allowing them to vote. He stated that the breakdown meant there was "no agreed way forward" and that the new scheme would remove unequal pay and substantially increase the council's total pay bill. Edgar also noted that pay protection for affected staff had been increased from six to 12 months.
Unison Scotland regional organiser Mandy McDowall countered that staff would not be "bounced into a shoddy deal" and warned the council risked being labelled a "pariah employer" if it did not negotiate in good faith. Unite the Union's industrial officer, Graham McNabb, called the fire and rehire tactic a "scandalous threat" and vowed to meet it with "the full force of Unite."
The GMB and Unite had previously announced securing an additional £110 million for the funding package to resolve issues for the majority of their members, but Unison stated this funding would not assist staff facing wage cuts. The Scottish government, through Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth, stepped in, stating it did not support fire and rehire schemes and urged both parties to return to the negotiating table to reach a collective agreement.
Following the pause, unions welcomed the lifting of the threat and the commitment to further negotiations. GMB organiser David Hume expressed belief that the new structure was ready to be put before members for a decision. One affected council worker described the situation as "heartbreaking," noting she would lose about £300 per year after 25 years of service.