Essy kerts will be out in Shetland despite strikes across Scotland

BLACK bags will continue to be collected and recycle bins emptied across Shetland despite strike action by members of the GMB and UNISON unions in other parts of Scotland.

Both unions together have notified a total of 21 councils that industrial action will take place over nine days between 14 and 22 August after refusing a 3.2 per cent pay offer from local authority umbrella body CoSLA.

In Shetland however unions did not get a mandate from its members in waste, refuse and street cleaning to join the strike.

Under trade union laws unions need at least a 50 per cent turnout for any strike mandate to be valid, and Unison did not achieve that during the ballot in Shetland.

GMB members in Shetland also did not vote for industrial action.

UNISON Scotland local government chair Colette Hunter said: “Strikes are always the last resort. But local government staff have seen the value of their wages reduced by a quarter over the past 14 years.

“They’re simply asking for a pay deal that recognises the essential services they deliver and starts to address years of below-inflation pay settlements.”

The council areas affected are: Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries & Galloway, East Ayrshire, City of Edinburgh, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow, Highland, Inverclyde, Midlothian, North Lanarkshire, Orkney Islands, Perth & Kinross, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Lothian, as well as arms-length waste management specialist company Cireco.