Hundreds of council workers are set to go on strike over a recent change to policy made by their local authority.
More than 500 construction and environmental department staff at Dundee City Council will take the step of industrial action following two ballots.
Two weeks of strike action and an overtime ban will begin on July 1, with more strikes taking place every Monday and Tuesday afterwards until further notice, according to Unite.
Members voted 95% in favour of the move on a 68% turnout – with hundreds more members to be balloted in the parks, leisure and culture and housing departments of the council.
The union says the new policy from February enables the local authority to impose compulsory redundancies, limit flexible retirement and reduce pay protection for staff moved to lower grade posts.
George Ramsay, Unite regional industrial officer, said: “This is an emphatic result for strike action from Unite members who are determined to oppose the imposition of changes to their contracts.
“Dundee City Council’s new policy not only shamefully opens the door for workers to be made redundant but potentially at a reduced cost to the council.
“This is the legal reality of the changes and no-one should underestimate the impact that this may have on job security and the protections currently available to workers.
“The council has made a grave mistake in believing that they can behave like the worst of employers by failing to consult on these changes, and then they have the audacity to invite us back to ‘negotiate’ some concessions from them.
“Unite has an offer of our own for the council, which is reverse these imposed changes or face rolling industrial action.
“We hope the public understand that this dispute has been solely created by the council but it is one which Unite will finish by winning.”
A spokesman for Dundee City Council said: “We continue to be proactive in our efforts to reach a way forward which will avoid the need for industrial action and will keep the channels of communication open with the trade unions and our workforce.
“This policy is not about compulsory redundancies, nor is it about any changes to staff contracts. Our commitment to avoiding compulsory job losses is as strong as ever.
“Instead it is about allowing the council to change, modernise and redesign services to meet citizens’ future needs and deal with financial challenges.
“Those challenges have been significant – we have been required to make savings of over £65 million since 2016 – and look likely to continue.
“Staff and their trade union representatives have a vital role to play in shaping the necessary changes.
“We have offered a way forward and we continue to be willing to listen and engage with constructive proposals from the trade unions.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here