COUNCIL workers in Scotland are being urged to take part in industrial action over a pay offer their union has branded “simply not good enough.”

All council workers earning less than £25,000 have been offered an £800 rise, while those earning £25,000 to £40,000 would get a 2 per cent increase, with those making more than this awarded 1 per cent.

But Unison says that the offer “does not address the issue of endemic low pay” for some council staff.

Unison Scotland’s head of local government, Johanna Baxter, said more than half of all council workers earn less than £25,000 a year, with more than 100,000 on a salary that is “significantly below the average wage of £32,000 per year.”

Ms Baxter said: “Without these workers going above and beyond to keep services running over the past year, their colleagues in the NHS would have been left without childcare, our mortuaries would have been overwhelmed, our children would have been left without an education and our elderly would have been left without care.”

A spokesman for the local government body Cosla said the offer remains on the table while negotiations continue.