The leader of Falkirk Council has said she is disappointed in the offer that was made to council workers on Friday at a special meeting of COSLA.
Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn said that anything short of five per cent "is not credible" as the three trade unions involved in the dispute - Unite, Unison and the GMB - rejected the latest offer of 3.5 per cent rise.
That means strike action is still very much on the cards in Falkirk and across Scotland.
READ MORE: Falkirk bins will go unemptied for eight days as council workers strike
In Falkirk, waste workers who are members of Unite are due to start eight days of industrial action on August 24.
On Friday, the GMB union confirmed that its members in waste services would also be walking out, with strikes from Friday, August 26 to Monday, August 29, and Wednesday, September 7 to Saturday, September 10.
There was a slim hope that an agreement would be reached on Friday, when COSLA and the unions discussed the offer of an extra £140 million that the Deputy First Minister John Swinney had put on the table.
That cash, however, was just enough to fund a pay rise of 3.5 per cent and while that was an improvement on the initial 2 per cent the unions said it was not enough.
Mr Swinney has said councils would be expected to find the rest of the cash for any higher offer.
He said: "Without the ability to borrow or change tax policy, this will have a significant and ongoing impact upon our fixed budget that ministers are taking steps to address.
"Finding a solution must be a collaborative endeavour and local authorities now need to do the same.
Shortly after the meeting, Cllr Meiklejohn said: "Council staff have made and continue to make a huge contribution to our communities on a daily basis. The offer being proposed after today's meeting neither reflects their value, nor recognises their contribution to work of the council.
"The increasing financial crisis we are seeing with the cost of living is also increasing pressure on hard-pressed workers and their families. An offer short of five per cent is not credible."
"My deep disappointment is shared by my SNP colleagues in CoSLA. It is for other parties to answer for their unwillingness to put a sensible offer on the table to make progress with negotiations. We remain willing to work with others to achieve an outcome which recognises the value of our workforce and averts strike action."
While the meeting was held in private, it is understood that several other council leaders said that over-stretched council budgets could not accommodate a further pay rise and urged the Scottish Government to come up with more cash to solve the dispute.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Keir Greenaway said: “Both parties are squabbling while more of our members struggle with debt, fuel poverty, and hunger, exposing a huge gulf between politics and frontline workers. This is only increasing anger and fear among our members - anger over the lack of value shown to them and fear about what winter will bring in this cost-of-living crisis.
“Make no mistake, these strikes are a direct response from our extraordinary key workers to months of political failure. They are not prepared to accept working poverty as an inevitability even if Scotland’s political leaders are.”
