Scotland will face another day of disruption later this month following yesterday�s confirmation by Unison members that they will strike on September 24.

Scotland will face another day of disruption later this month following yesterday's confirmation by Unison members that they will strike on September 24.

Union chiefs felt they had "no alternative" but to take further strike action as part of a dispute over council workers' pay. The union represents about 100,000 local government workers and is the biggest union in the sector, with members of Unite and the GMB also joining last month's strike.

A Unison local government conference in Glasgow yesterday agreed to stage the further one-day stoppage.

The union is also planning selective action involving groups of council workers from the start of October, with the possibility of these lasting up to a week.

Stephanie Herd, who chairs Unison Scotland's local government committee, said: "This decision today clearly shows the anger our members feel at the employers' failure to improve their offer, and also the determination of our members to win a fair and just pay settlement."

She said she was confident that the GMB and Unite unions would feel just as strongly. Dougie Black, Unison Scotland regional officer, said the decision of the conference sent a clear message to the employers: "Your failure to improve your offer despite previous commitments given in public to do so will not be tolerated."

He added: "Taking further industrial action is regrettable, but now unavoidable. We have no alternative given the employers' behaviour."

The local government body Cosla said further action would put communities through more unnecessary disruption as meeting the union demands would require job losses and service cuts.

Cosla's Michael Cook said the real cause of the impasse was that the unions had restated their original demand for workers to receive a pay rise of whichever is greater from 5% or £1000 a year on to their wages.

Councillor Cook insisted: "In light of this stance by the unions, employers really had no alternative but to reaffirm their offer of 2.5%. However, we modified it as a one-year offer of 2.5% for 2008-09.

"To increase the offer beyond this level would mean service reduction and job losses. It is time for the unions to be a bit more realistic in their demands."

However, he said councils were facing increasing financial pressures: "Demands on budgets have increased hugely.

Energy costs, food costs, slowing capital returns are just some of the issues."