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COMMUNITY Safety Glasgow (CSG) workers rallied outside Glasgow City Chambers yesterday as they prepare for a weekend of strike action in a row over pay.
Around a hundred members of GMB and Unison, who are employed as community enforcement officers, CCTV operators and community payback staff, are in dispute with CSG over changes to shift allowances which are out of line with other council employees.
CSG Unison convener Chris McKenna said the dispute was about fair pay for shift workers.
The company has implemented a new wage structure where shift pay is “significantly lower than for other council employees.”
Mr McKenna told the Star that the dispute was “fair and just, and we want to talk to the employer to reach a solution.”
Mr McKenna also criticised council leader Frank McAveety for “factually misrepresenting the situation” when he attacked the unions in the press yesterday.
Mr McAveety argued that in October employees had received pay rises of up to 24 per cent, and said “at a time when the poorest in Glasgow are having benefits slashed by hundreds of pounds, wage rises in the thousands are not good enough for the Unison leaders.”
However Unison said its members were “very surprised and angry” at Mr McAveety’s attack on them.
In a statement Unison said: “Cllr McAveety’s attempt to undermine our members’ just case by making comparisons to those out of work is the worst kind of divide-and-rule tactics. If he is so concerned about those out of work then why is the council cutting jobs?”
Unison revealed that the pay review meant CSG’s director now earns £107,000, an increase of £5,000.
The union says most shift workers in CSG have had poor or no shift payments for years and that increases in core pay in no way compensated for the lower shift payments compared to all other council workers.
GMB Scotland officer Benny Rankin said members would continue with planned action and that there were “calls from our members to increase the dispute to withdraw services for the full two weeks at the Christmas and New Year period.”
