Balancing act needed if council wages are to rise
The basic wage of the council's lowest-paid workers rose from 12,200 to 13,340 and some 681 benefitted. The move cost the local authority 1.2 million, but it believes that figure will be recouped via disciplinary measures against staff with poor attendance records. According to the unions, there are some 700,000 workers across Scotland, many of them women, who earn less than the proposed rate.
Given the intensifying pressure on budgets, and that labour costs are by far the largest item in local authority outgoings, such a move seems ill-timed, and would open councils to the charge that services would be put in jeopardy in order to raise the pay of council staff.