Some NHS Tayside health care staff could still organise strike action after the GMB union rejected an improved pay deal from the Scottish Government.
Two thirds of its members - representing ambulance staff, nurses, porters and radiographers - voted against it, which would have been an average 7.5 per cent pay uplift.
GMB Scotland senior organiser for public service Keir Greenaway said the offer “doesn’t go far enough” to help staff struggling with the cost of living crisis.
However, the risk of strike action from the health service in the region was lessened overall this week after members of two major NHS unions - Unite and Unison - voted to accept the deal.
Representing nurses, midwives, support staff, and Scottish Ambulance Service staff it means most staff will get a rise of just over £2200 a year.
Meanwhile train services will not run for five days in Perth and Kinross this week due to Network Rail staff strikes over an ongoing national dispute over conditions and pay.
Members of the RMT walked out on Tuesday and Wednesday, affecting operations on Thursday, and will do so again today and Saturday - with all trains cancelled on those days.
A severely reduced train timetable will run for just 12 routes - all in the central belt, Fife and Borders - until Sunday.
Strikes are also planned from 6pm on Christmas Eve through to 6am on December 27 and January 3, 4, 6 and 7.
Union members “emphatically” rejected the latest pay offer on Monday, which the RMT says includes a five per cent and four per cent pay rise over a two-year period with “thousands of job losses”, as well as a cut in scheduled maintenance tasks and an increase in unsocial hours.
Local Royal Mail staff continued their series of planned strikes this week as part of a long-running dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.
Communication Workers Union (CWU) members who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters went on picket lines on Wednesday and Thursday, with December 23-24 earmarked for industrial action.
The strikes are expected to create delays in the delivery of parcels and letters in what is the busiest time of year for the service.
The union is calling for a pay rise that “fully addresses the current cost of living”, citing that the current RPI inflation rate is at 11.8 per cent.
Royal Mail has said that it has “well-developed contingency plans” to minimise disruption and says it has offered an enhanced pay deal of nine per cent over 18 months and “a number of other concessions” to terms and agreements.
