Strike action could be "inevitable" for tens of thousands of council workers in Scotland this summer, as union bosses hit out at the offer of a "paltry" pay increase.
GMB Scotland will alert the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) on Monday of its intention to ballot all school, early years and waste and cleansing service members between June 6 and July 26.
The ballot of nearly 10,000 workers is in response to the local authority body's 2% pay offer against all council pay grades for 2022/23.
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Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland's senior organiser, warned the offer would equate to a real-terms pay cut for frontline workers while disproportionately supplying the biggest increases to the councils' highest earners.
He said: "Tens of thousands of the lowest paid staff in local government will go from the frontline of public service delivery to below the breadline unless their pay confronts soaring inflation and eye-watering energy bills.
"But instead of recognising the scale of the challenge and rising to meet it, political leaders are sleeping at the wheel and blaming each other for their inability to address it - it's a far cry from their doorstep applause every Thursday night only two years ago.
"Let's be clear. A pay rise of just 2% for the workers earning under £25,000 a year is worth no more than a tenner a week. It will turn a crisis into a catastrophe for many working families and there is no trade union worth its salt that would leave that unchallenged.
"Unless Cosla comes back to the negotiating table with a vastly improved offer that reflects the fact our members are working in the biggest cost-of-living crisis in 40 years, then industrial action looks inevitable".
