Perth and Kinross has Scotland’s highest turnout as school staff vote to strike

Perth and Kinross had Scotland’s highest turnout as school staff in 24 council areas voted to strike.

A total of 67.91% of Unison members in the area voted to take industrial action – more than anywhere else in the country.

Of these, 93.19% voted to strike.

Angus had the second highest turnout with 66.56%.

Just under 90% of these members voted for walkouts.

Workers from Angus and Dundee also voted to go on strike, which means school staff across the whole of Tayside and Fife are set to take industrial action.

Unison: Largest ever school vote in Scotland

It is the largest ever vote for strike action by school staff in Scotland and could mean mass closures across the country, Unison has threatened.

Unison is the largest union in local government representing 84,000 workers.

It balloted school staff working for every council in Scotland over the 5% pay offer from employer body Cosla. Workers were due a pay rise in April.

They have also been offered an additional increase dependent on salary from January 2024 for all local government workers.

While there was a vote in favour of strike action in every council, trade union laws require a 50% turnout.

Perth and Kinross, Angus, Dundee and Fife were among the 24 councils meeting this threshold – and where strikes are threatened.

Strikes would take place in early autumn

Unison Scotland’s local government committee will meet next week to prepare for industrial action, which would likely take place in early autumn.

Unison Scottish secretary Lilian Macer said: “This is Unison’s strongest ever strike mandate in local government, which shows the level of anger felt by staff.

“The union will do everything possible to get back around the table with Cosla to resolve this dispute.

“School staff would prefer to be in school working with children, not on picket lines and closing dozens of schools.

“But the Scottish government and Cosla should be in no doubt about the determination of school staff and they’ll do what it takes to get an improved pay deal for all local government workers”

Unison Scotland local government committee chair Mark Ferguson said: “Cosla leaders are meeting today and if they fail to address the reasonable demands on the back of such a significant mandate, schools across Scotland will close and nobody wants that.

“Unison remains committed to dialogue and hopes a satisfactory resolution can be found before staff are forced to take industrial action.”

Early-years staff among those balloted

Membership groups balloted were school employees providing services to the running and operation of the school.

This included early-years staff working within a school or are co-located with a school.

The ballot did not include early-years workers in stand-alone nurseries or early-years centres.