More than 20,000 council staff to be fired and rehired in plan branded 'shockingly deplorable'

More than 20,000 Glasgow City Council staff will be fired then rehired under new contracts after talks to resolve a long-running equal pay dispute between the local body and trade unions broke down.

In a statement, the council said all of its non-teaching staff will be dismissed and reintroduced with new contracts, with details to be sent to individuals concerned next week.

The change for 23,000 workers will take place on New Year's Day, and comes after talks with GMB, Unite and Unison collapsed.

Glasgow City Council said GMB and Unite agreed to ballot members on an offer it said "would have seen a substantial injection of cash to fund additional back pay and take the possibility of dismissals off the table" in talks over ending a discriminatory pay structure.

However, the council said Unison withdrew its support for the measure and "provided no substantive reason for this".

A Unison convener later said the local authority's claims that it was to blame for the situation were "misleading" and "false".

Colin Edgar, a council spokesman, told Sky News on Friday: "Well, it's a hellish situation. Absolutely no one wanted to be here. Well, almost no one wanted to be here.

"In the last two weeks, we have been so close to a deal that [would have avoided this]. The council wanted to get a deal over the line. The GMB and Unite wanted to get a deal over the line, and twice Unison at the last minute have pulled the rug out from all of us. We didn't need to be here and we shouldn't have been here."

He said the discriminatory pay and grading scheme "has to go", adding: "There are two ways it can go. It can go through collective agreement, or it can go through dismiss and reengage.

"We need a collective agreement. We were nearly there. We have put a really good deal on the table with extra money and really the unions need to put that to their members."

Mr Edgar was asked by Sky News' Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies if he could guarantee that all those being sacked would be rehired.

He replied: "All of the people will be reengaged. It will not affect their continuity of service. It won't affect their pensions.

"Their contract will change at midnight on 31 December. But we value the work that people do, and people in this city need those people doing that work."

Mr Edgar admitted that a group of staff will see their wages go down almost £11,000.

He said: "We have 18 months until that takes effect. We have a year's pay protection, which the trade unions negotiated earlier this year.

"We need to take the time to see what we can do to help those people. We need to redesign jobs, we need to see if people can move to other jobs, we need to see if people want to retire early, but we can only do that once we have the new scheme in place - once we know we've done away with the discriminatory scheme.

"Two of our unions want that, one doesn't, and we really need to get back around the table and move forward."

Sylvia Haughney, Glasgow education convener at Unison, later said the council's claims that the union was to blame for the situation were "misleading" and "false".

She said: "Glasgow City Council have put themselves in this position about fire and rehire.

"They do not need to do that. That's their choice to do it, and it's just shocking and disgraceful that they have decided to do that to over 23,000 employees.

"That's just utterly deplorable for a council to do that, and that was absolutely their choice to do it."

Ms Haughney said the policy of fire and rehire was "utterly immoral", "shockingly deplorable" and that most of the staff receiving pay cuts were women.

She said the council was offering workers a "shoddy deal", adding: "This deal does not address the detriment... our members are facing.

"We can't put that ballot to our members until we get a better offer, a better proposal for those who are facing detriment.

"We are willing to meet with the council to discuss further offers that they could put in place, and we will ballot our members, but not until we get a better offer."

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Unite industrial officer Graham McNabb said: "Glasgow City Council must remove direct threats to our membership in its proposed new pay and grading structure, whether it is through cuts to terms and conditions, or the scandalous threat of fire and rehire tactics.

"If they go down this reckless path, then it will be met with the full force of Unite."

Justice Secretary Neil Gray has urged the council and unions to "get around the table".

Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra said: "It beggars belief that the SNP council is threatening to railroad through fire and rehire before it is made illegal in this country by the UK Labour government.

"It may not break the letter of the law, but it certainly breaks the spirit of it. It's a despicable way to treat working people. It's straight out the Tory playbook.

"All parties need to get round the table and hammer out a deal. Working people should never be threatened like this again."

(c) Sky News 2026: More than 20,000 council staff to be fired and rehired in plan branded 'shockingly deplorable'