Glasgow City Council has temporarily halted controversial plans to dismiss and rehire more than 23,000 employees following high-level political intervention. The decision follows online discussions involving local authority leaders and three major trade unions, which were overseen by Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth.
The developments mean that formal notices regarding the dismissal procedure, which were scheduled to be sent directly to workers, have been put on hold. Negotiations between the local authority and representatives from the GMB, Unison, and Unite unions are set to resume early next week. Officials hope the renewed dialogue will yield a mutually acceptable agreement concerning employee compensation.
The dispute arose after talks collapsed over efforts to reform the local authority's compensation structure. The Scottish National Party-led council had previously warned it would terminate and reissue contracts for its entire non-teaching workforce following a breakdown in bargaining. This approach drew sharp criticism from the Scottish government, with Gilruth publicly stating that administration officials oppose the use of dismissal and re-engagement tactics.
The overarching objective of the wage overhaul is to address longstanding equal pay issues that disproportionately impacted female personnel. Glasgow City Council has already paid out massive sums following previous legal challenges regarding gender wage disparities between female-dominated roles, such as catering and cleaning, and male-dominated jobs like refuse collection. The latest job evaluation initiative, developed over eight years, utilized questionnaires and interviews to assess positions across thirteen distinct criteria, including mental skill and physical effort.
While the new system would see the majority of personnel either experience no change or receive a pay increase, calculations indicate that roughly eleven percent of the workforce would face reduced earnings. The proposed adjustments sparked immense anxiety among affected workers, with some describing the threat of contract termination as devastating after decades of public service. Critics argued that reducing salaries for staff working with vulnerable populations was unacceptable.
The council had initially intended to issue termination letters to all non-teaching employees, ranging from administrative staff to executive leadership, with new employment terms slated to take effect on January 1. That timeline coincided with upcoming nationwide legislative reforms designed to classify the dismissal of workers who decline contract modifications as automatic unfair dismissal. Union representatives and local leaders will now return to the negotiating table in an effort to resolve the dispute before those legal changes take effect.
Reporting based on coverage first published by BBC News. Read the original report at BBC News.
