Nicola Sturgeon to hold talks over council strikes

Nicola Sturgeon is to meet council leaders and trade unions on Thursday afternoon over the council pay dispute.

The first minister will hold talks in Edinburgh in a bid to end the row over pay for refuse and school workers.

It comes as refuse collections around Scotland are restarting as the first wave of strikes by council bin workers ends.

Unions launched industrial action on 18 August in a pay dispute with local government body Cosla.

The walkout ended in Edinburgh on Tuesday, but rubbish continued to pile up in 13 other Scottish council areas, including Glasgow and Aberdeen.

There will be further strikes in 19 councils areas across Scotland between 6 - 13 September.

Glasgow City Council said it would begin to collect waste across the city from Thursday, but warned residents there would a "significant delay" to all collections because of the extensive backlog.

City of Edinburgh Council has announced further changes to its bin collection schedule as the clear-up operation continues, urging residents to help by storing extra waste for a "little longer".

Edinburgh council leader Cammy Day said: "Obviously this further change to our schedules is far from ideal, and I apologise for any inconvenience caused, however, it gives us the best possible chance of preparing the city for the next period of industrial action.

"Our crews have been working hard to catch up on collections and making every effort to collect significant volumes of litter across the city.

"The clear up is progressing well and we can already see the benefits of having the crews back out on the street keeping the city clean."

Public Health Scotland had warned of a human health risk from overflowing waste and advised councils to decontaminate areas where bins overflowed.

Unions had been seeking an agreement from Cosla similar to the one made to council workers in England - which included a £1,925 flat rate pay increase.

The pay dispute led to action by refuse staff at two-thirds of Scotland's councils and is also set to close schools and nurseries next week.

Edinburgh began the series of strikes around the country after the three unions rejected an initial pay offer equivalent to a 3.5% increase.

The action escalated when refuse workers at a further 20 local authorities walked out despite a revised 5% offer.

A second wave of strikes is due to begin on 6 September, with hundreds of schools and nurseries also scheduled to close from 6 to 8 September.

The action will take place from 7 to 9 September in Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross.

Cosla's offer of a £1,925 pay uplift matched the offer to council workers in England - but only part of this payment would be consolidated into staff salaries. The rest would be given as one-off cost-of-living payments.

Unions said this meant lower-paid staff would not benefit as much as those on higher wages.

The Scottish government has given an additional £140m to councils to help fund a pay increase for staff.

It has offered a further £200m over two years to provide a cost-of-living payment to workers earning below £39,000.

However, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has said there is no more money available to fund further pay increases as the government's finances are "finite".

"I have managed to find one-off sums of money to ensure that people on low incomes are able to get a £2,000 increase in their salary now. But the government cannot offer any more money," he said.

Cosla said it was disappointed that unions had turned down an offer that was at the "absolute extremes" of affordability.

Resources spokesperson Katie Hagmann said: "We have done everything we possibly can to get to this stage and this offer - which is still on the table - is as good as it gets."