ROAD workers at Scottish Borders Council will ballot for further strike action, a union has confirmed.

Unite’s members previously took 24 hours industrial action and held a rally outside the local authority’s headquarters in August, over changes to terms and conditions.

And following a meeting on Tuesday night, members agreed to hold a ballot for further strike action.
The union said SBC had drafted in contracted workers during the previous dispute, which it claims is in breach of the collective agreement between Unite and the council.

If the industrial action ballot, which closes on October 30, is successful – the strike is likely to take place during the winter season.

Willie Thomson, Unite regional industrial officer, said: “Scottish Borders Council risks a winter of severe disruption due to its reckless pursuit in cutting our members’ pay.

“At a mass meeting on Tuesday, our members unanimously voted to take action and they will imminently receive their ballot papers for industrial action.

“The council has deliberately inflamed the situation through their use of contractors to carry out work normally undertaken by our members during the industrial action in August breaching our collective agreements.”

Scottish Borders Council said plans were in place to cope over the winter – if further strikes are called.

Chief executive Tracey Logan said: "Due to the ongoing industrial action by a small number of roads department staff in some of our depots, we have been in discussions with experienced contractors around the availability of resources so that we can meet our legal obligations this winter.

"We understand Unite plans to ballot relevant staff on extending the current industrial action to March next year. Bizarrely they are arguing this is because we are making use of contractors to fulfil our obligations as a category one responder under the Civil Contingencies Act – we are, but only because of the ongoing industrial action by Unite which has resulted in staff opting not to participate in the out-of-hours winter maintenance programmer.

"We now have well-developed plans in place with a number of contractors and believe there will be absolutely no impact on our normal service this winter. In fact, the flexibility that these contractors provide has opened up opportunities to pre-treat roads differently in some areas, which may actually benefit more drivers, particularly those travelling earlier in the morning.

"Our contingency plans continue to make use of all legal means to ensure that not only is our winter service unaffected, but that any disruption to our day-to-day roads operations are absolutely minimized during this industrial action."

Ms Logan added: "It is extremely disappointing that Unite continues to argue that the council should move away from the terms and conditions agreed with all the trades unions and the principles of fairness and equality to settle this matter.

"This is not something which the council is prepared to do, and it is baffling that Unite, as representatives of a wide range of staff, is seeking to continue and in fact escalate unfair and unequal practices.

"To reiterate previous statements, the council has not changed terms and conditions for this staff group, nor have we failed to consult the trades unions or the staff affected.

"We discovered some months ago that a small number of staff in the roads section had been claiming a higher rate of overtime than they were entitled to under the agreed terms and conditions. They were also claiming for time to travel to work when working overtime, which again is not in line with the agreement in place."