NJC local government
Glasgow offers pay protection to 2030. Unison says 4,600 have no grade.
Glasgow City Council's final offer includes pay protection to March 2030 and drops fire and rehire, but Unison says 4,600 staff have no grade yet.
4,600 Staff Unison says have no grade yet
Glasgow City Council said on 5 October 2026 that all three unions have agreed to ballot their members on its final pay offer, which takes fire and rehire off the table. Staff who would lose pay are offered three years’ protection, from April 2027 to the end of March 2030. But Unison estimates that about 4,600 of the council’s roughly 23,000 non-teaching staff have still not had their job evaluated, and the council says they will be asked to vote before their new grade and basic pay are confirmed.
What changed on 5 October
On 24 September, after talks with Unison broke down, the council told staff it would serve notice ending their current contracts and offer them new ones. The next day, after talks with the unions and the Scottish Government, it paused those letters.
On 5 October the council’s chief executive, Susanne Millar, told staff that Unison, GMB and Unite had all agreed to ballot their members on the council’s final proposal. Because of that, she said, “the council will not issue dismissal letters”.
The proposal includes “increased backpay and three years’ pay protection from April 2027 to end of March 2030”. The Deputy First Minister, Jenny Gilruth, whose government added money to the offer, said it will “protect all staff from any reduction in their pay until April 2030”. GMB’s organiser at the council said the new support includes £110 million to cover extra back pay.
There is no more to come. The council says the offer “exhausts the funding available”, and its leader, Ricky Bell, said “there is no further money to come as part of this package”. The council has agreed to keep talking to Unison about lower-paid workers, allowances, jobs not yet evaluated, equality impacts and how the new pay model works, and says it will give priority to appeals from staff whose pay falls.
Who votes, and when
GMB and Unite had already agreed to put the offer to their members. Unison will now do the same. Its ballot is due later in October and is expected to run for about four weeks, and the union says it will confirm the dates to members.
Putting an offer to a vote is not the same as backing it. Unison’s branch secretary, Chris Sermanni, said: “this isn’t Unison’s acceptance of the pay and grading package and the fight for improvements isn’t over.”
The figures, and whose they are
| What has been said | Figure | Whose figure |
|---|---|---|
| Non-teaching staff in scope | about 23,000 | Council |
| Graded staff whose pay goes up | about 63% | Council |
| Graded staff whose pay goes down | about 11% | Council |
| Largest reported cut | around £11,000 a year | BBC News, for staff at the Assist domestic abuse service |
| Still waiting for a job evaluation | about 4,600 | Unison estimate, about 20% of staff |
| Pay protection | April 2027 to the end of March 2030 | Council |
The 63% and the 11% were worked out before every job had been graded. BBC News reported that the council expects them to stay roughly the same once the remaining roles are added.
What people will get wrong
Protection is not the same as no cut. It stops pay going down from April 2027 to the end of March 2030. Nothing the council or the unions have published says what happens to protected pay after that.
A ballot is not a result. Nothing is settled until members of all three unions have voted.
The 4,600 are in a different position from everyone else. Their jobs sit in what the council calls secondary benchmark roles, where the work is very similar across a group, and unique roles, which fewer than five people do. The council says that if your role has not been fully evaluated, you will be asked to vote “before your new grade and basic pay are confirmed”. Any allowances they get change in April 2027 with everyone else’s, but their core pay waits for the evaluation. The council says it has proposed finishing all secondary benchmark roles and most unique roles “at the earliest opportunity”, and gives no date.
One caution for readers elsewhere. This is Glasgow’s own grading exercise. Scottish councils bargain separately from councils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, so nothing here tells you what your own authority is doing.
Where these figures come from
- New Pay and Grading Structure — staff communications, including the chief executive's message of 5 October 2026 — Glasgow City Council
- Unison agrees to take new Glasgow council pay deal to members after negotiations — PA Media (via the Enfield Independent)
- Glasgow City Council workers to vote on new pay and grading structure after breakthrough in talks with Unison — GlasgowWorld
- Thousands of Glasgow City Council staff still do not know if their pay will be cut — BBC News (syndicated via Yahoo News)
Every figure traces to a dated document — the line this section is named after. If one here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed publicly. Work out your own figures.