Scottish Water holiday period strike off – last minute deal

Scottish Water agreed a deal with the three unions threatening that their members would strike from 4.00pm on 24th December until 5th January 2009 if an acceptable settlement of a long-standing pay dispute was not reached. The strike would have seen Argyll and Scotland with  no emergency cover for bursts, flooding and sewage problems over the holiday period and well into the New Year.

The deal agreed amounts to a 7.75% pay increase over 27 months. A joint statement from the three unions – GMB, Unite and Unison – said they were recommending that staff accepted the improved pay offer.

Chris Wallace, Scottish Water’s Director of Communications, says: ‘We have established common ground with the unions to end the proposed industrial action and to establish a pay deal that can be finalised and implemented in the new year’.