SCOTLAND’s key workers have told the Scottish Government they are worth more than the 4% pay rise they have been offered.

Ahead of the STUC annual conference, members of GMB Scotland in care, nursing, refuse, ambulance, and school support services are campaigning for a rejection of the 2021 pay offer of 4% and £800 for the lowest paid workers in the NHS and Cosla.

Scottish organiser Karen Leonard – wife of Richard Leonard, Scottish Labour’s former leader – has described it as a “pre-election punt” that looks better than it actually is compared with the “insulting” pay rise for NHS workers in England.

She said: “It’s been a wretched year for our NHS workers and the Covid-19 pandemic has not only pushed them beyond their limits, but it’s also exposed the many underlying problems in our NHS because of its managed political decline over the last 10 years.”

A consultative ballot on the offer in Cosla will run until Thursday and in NHS Scotland until May 5.

Drew Duffy, GMB Scotland’s senior organiser, said while they were told Scotland was prepared for Covid-19, nothing was further form the truth: “Health and social care staff tackled the first wave of Covid-19 without proper PPE, home carers were left without workplace testing until January, and school support staff were an afterthought in the education recovery plan.

"From PPE, testing, sick pay support and socially distanced working arrangements, everything that’s been put in place to protect the workers on which we all depend had to be fought for by the workers’ themselves.

“And after a wretched year and desperate decade, where their modest incomes have been cut by thousands of pounds, our members are prepared to fight again for their proper value, against pay offers that don’t amount to much more than a £10-a-week increase for many.

"They’ve heard the applause and they’ve read all the political platitudes, but now they are telling the Scottish Government to listen, and the message is clear: ‘We’re worth more’.”