Swinney fights to avoid winter of strike action

Scottish Political Editor

Sunday 16 September 2012

JOHN Swinney will this week attempt to head off a winter of overlapping public strikes as he sets out next year's budget at Holyrood, amid fears Westminster cuts will ultimately dash his hopes for a distinctive public-sector pay policy.

Thousands protested against Government cuts in London last year Photograph: Getty

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By Scottish Political Exitor Tom Gordon

Scottish Government sources last night said the Finance Secretary was "doing his utmost" to create a more generous package for workers north of the Border, with the final decision due to be taken by the Cabinet on Tuesday.

However, there was distinct scepticism from union leaders who met Swinney a fortnight ago, when he said he wanted to end the two-year public pay freeze in favour of a "modest" increase of about 1% in 2013-14, the same as expected in England. One union boss said Swinney was conspicuously unable to give any specific figures, and was anyway limited to helping set the pay rates for the core civil service and NHS workers, with no say over the wages of 282,000 council staff."He tends to hold to what the UK does and then say his budget is constrained by what others give him," said a senior Unison official.Swinney will tell MSPs his draft plans for the 2013-14 budget and pay policy on Thursday.Public-sector pay is due to rise by no more than 1% in 2013-14 and 2014-15, equivalent to a real-terms cut of more than 12% given rising living costs.With the SNP government anxious to differentiate itself from the Coalition, Swinney has been straining to craft a distinctive wage settlement for Scotland's 500,000 public-sector workers, and so reduce the prospect of industrial action.A source close to the Finance Secretary told the Sunday Herald: "It's fair to say we are looking to do more in the budget on economic growth and for public-sector workers than in the Spending Review plans. We are looking to maximise the impact of economic growth and trying to do our utmost for public-sector workers."However, a series of pay and pension disputes across the public sector, and an 11% Treasury cut to his budget, means Swinney has little room to manoeuvre and almost no spare cash for salaries.Unions are currently considering staging the UK's first general strike since 1926 over pay. Last week's annual TUC conference in Brighton saw Britain's three largest unions – Unite, Unison and the GMB – back a study into the "practicalities" of such a move.Trade unions currently have 6.5 million members in the UK, almost 90% of them in the public sector, and if all were to strike the impact on schools, hospitals and transport would be immense.Both Labour and the Coalition have made clear their opposition to such a strike, with shadow chancellor Ed Balls heckled at the TUC when he spoke in support of continued pay restraint. The Coalition has also hinted the Army could be used to maintain essential services if police, firefighters and public transport staff walk out. Even if there is no co-ordinated general strike, a rash of smaller strikes seems highly possible, as workers refuse to accept another year of shrinking pay, pension changes and job cuts.Last week the Public and Commercial Services Union in Scotland, which covers the civil service, demanded an end to the pay freeze and the introduction of a "distinctive Scottish pay system".University staff are also being balloted on whether to strike in favour of a 7% pay claim, and teachers' leaders are this weekend discussing possible walk-outs over changes to pensions.Council staff in Scotland are still negotiating this year's pay settlement with employers.Next month, an STUC rally in Glasgow will be used to gauge the strength of support for staging industrial action as public-sector pay negotiations gear up in the New Year.Swinney said: "I guarantee that I will squeeze every penny out of the money we have available to us to boost the pace of recovery and to support the hard-pressed households of Scotland. "We are investing as much as we can in infrastructure projects to support recovery, build the foundations for long-term growth and create and sustain the jobs that this country needs now."

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Swinney fights to avoid winter of strike action

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