REFUSE WORKERS VOTE ON SUMMER STRIKE

Council staff could walk out in dispute over pay offer

- PAUL CARGILL

A NEW bin crisis is looming with thousands of refuse collection workers and street cleaners set to be balloted for strike action in a pay row.

Unison, Scotland's biggest trade union, has warned mass walkouts could start in August if a majority of council staff back industrial action.

A 12-day bin workers' strike in 2022 left streets filled with rubbish.

The union has described the latest pay offer from Cosla, the group which represents the nation's councils, as "inadequate" after 91 per cent of workers rejected it.

The two-stage offer lasting 18 months would have meant a 2.2 per cent increase for staff over the first six months of the deal and an extra two per cent for the next months.