South Lanarkshire News
A reader from South Lanarkshire sent me an extract from the Facebook page of the local Unison branch announcing the results of a Scotland wide ballot on industrial action over pay.
Not over Equal Pay, mind you, that would be a bit radical given the unions' terrible track record over the years.
But the Facebook report misses out a key piece of information; namely that turnout in the ballot was only 22.8% - or less than a quarter of the union's membership.
So if you ask me, the most significant figure is not the 62% who voted for industrial action, but the 67% who couldn't even be bothered to take part in the ballot.
The result of the Industrial Action ballot for UNISON members in Scottish local government which closed yesterday was announced today. The result was a 62.7% vote in favour of industrial action. Details below:
• Number of votes cast; 15,214
• Number of yes votes; 9,540
• Number of no votes; 5,662
• Number of spoiled or invalid papers; 12
Unfortunately as the turnout is below the 50% threshold, it is not possible to take industrial action under current legislation imposed by the UK Government.
UNISON's Scottish Local Government Committee met in Glasgow this morning to consider the ballot result and understandably were disappointed.
The ballot did return a vote in favour of taking industrial action but did not meet the requirements of the Trade Union Act 2016. However the result did indicate that there are a substantial number of UNISON members who are unhappy with the employers offer on pay.
The employers have previously stated that they would be prepared to meet with the trade unions once the ballot had concluded and as a result UNISON will be seeking an early meeting to explore how pay can be concluded for 2017/18.
