London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Pay talks to continue as Scotland's bin strikes spread

Pay talks to continue as Scotland's bin strikes spread

Talks to end Scotland's bin strikes will resume on Friday as industrial action spreads to more areas.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney met unions and council body Cosla on Thursday afternoon, after pay negotiations broke down on Wednesday.

Talks between councils and unions continued - ending without agreement after 22:00 on Thursday night.

Refuse workers in Edinburgh are midway through a two-week strike that has left bins overflowing on the streets.

Staff in 13 other areas walked out on Wednesday.

They are joined on Friday by several more local authorities, with most of the councils involved in the dispute not expected to have any bin collections until the end of the month.

The affected areas include Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and the Highlands.

Further strikes have also been scheduled on dates between 6 and 13 September by refuse workers in more than 20 council areas.

Schools, nurseries and early years' centres many areas are also due to see strikes from unions members including catering staff, janitors and classroom assistants next month.

Glasgow City Council has confirmed that the strike will close all of its nurseries, primaries and ASL schools for three days on 6, 7, and 8 September.

Mr Swinney has described the bin situation in Edinburgh as already being "deeply concerning" for public health, with visitors to the city's arts festival speaking of their shock at the piles of waste lying next to overflowing public bins.

He said the latest round of talks were aimed at ensuring there was "intense dialogue" around resolving the dispute, adding: "I do hope that leads to substantive progress.

"It is in the interests of members of staff who want certainty about their pay, and also it is in the interest of local authorities and members of the public to have public services restored.

"So I would encourage everybody to engage in that dialogue and the government will do what it can to be helpful".

Edinburgh residents have been asked to keep their rubbish in their homes


BBC Scotland's Jamie McIvor said there would be no additional government money to help fund a council pay deal but it is looking at what else it can do to help. This could include freeing up more of the money councils get from the government to support a better pay offer.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's meeting, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said its members had been "failed miserably" by politicians.

She added: "For five months Cosla and the Scottish government have dithered and bickered with each other while our members have increasingly faced a cost of living crisis.

"We will fully support them in their fight for better jobs, pay and conditions."

Cosla said the unions had rejected a pay offer earlier this week that would have meant the lowest paid 12% of council workers would get a pay increase of more than 5%.

It has also said the latest pay offer amounts to "one of, if not the best offer in decades for Scottish local government workers" with some workers getting an overall 7.36% increase.


Unions have called for more funding from the government to pay for an improved offer and rejected a request from the government to suspend the strikes while negotiations were held with Cosla.

Unite said that for more than half of local government workers, Cosla's offer represented an offer of between £900 to £1,250 when the UK government is offering council workers in England a £1,925 flat rate pay offer.

The union believes a flat rate increase would be most beneficial for low-paid workers, and says it has been told by some members that the cost of living crisis has led them to take holidays or sick days because they cannot afford to go to work.

Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland's head of local government, said ahead of the latest talks with Mr Swinney that the union was "a long way" from agreement.

She added: "We need to rethink the construction of the pay offer, so that those on the lowest incomes are fairly treated, and we also need to explore ways in which we can increase the overall cash available to come to a fair offer."

The GMB has described the package currently on offer as "bitterly disappointing and frankly shameful".


Is there a bin strike in my area?


Refuse workers in Edinburgh began industrial action on 18 August. Bin collectors from 12 other councils began their strike on 24 August:

*  Aberdeen
*  Angus
*  Dundee
*  East Ayrshire
*  East Renfrewshire
*  Falkirk
*  Glasgow
*  Highland
*  Inverclyde
*  South Ayrshire
*  South Lanarkshire
*  West Lothian

East Lothian expect domestic bin collections to continue despite strike action because of the number of workers involved.

From 26 August, workers will join the strike action in:

*  Aberdeenshire
*  Clackmannanshire
*  North Lanarkshire
*  Stirling
*  Midlothian
*  Orkney
*  Perth and Kinross

The industrial action runs until the end of the month in most local authority areas though some councils have fewer strike days.

On various days between 6 and 13 September, refuse workers will also strike in:

*  Aberdeenshire
*  Aberdeen City
*  Angus
*  Clackmannanshire
*  Dumfries and Galloway
*  Dundee
*  East Ayrshire
*  East Dunbartonshire
*  East Lothian
*  East Renfrewshire
*  Edinburgh
*  Falkirk
*  Fife
*  Glasgow
*  Highland
*  Inverclyde
*  Midlothian
*  Orkney
*  Perth and Kinross
*  North Ayrshire
*  South Ayrshire
*  South Lanarkshire
*  North Lanarkshire
*  Stirling
*  West Lothian

Where are school and nursery staff set to strike?


Some staff in schools, nurseries and early years' centres in these council areas are scheduled hold strikes between 6, 7, 8 and 9 September, with the exact days differing between local authorities.

*  Aberdeenshire
*  Angus
*  Clackmannanshire
*  Dundee City
*  East Renfrewshire
*  Glasgow City
*  Inverclyde
*  Orkney
*  North Lanarkshire
*  Stirling
*  South Lanarkshire

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×