Glasgow City Council has reached an agreement with Unison, its largest union, in a bitter dispute over pay and grading, lifting the threat that more than 23,000 staff could be dismissed and rehired on new contracts.

The deal protects the salaries of workers who would have faced pay cuts under the council's original plans for three years. Unison said negotiations were continuing and that it would ballot its members later this month.

The agreement marks a turning point in one of the most significant workplace disputes in Scottish local government, rooted in the council's long-running equal pay scandal.

The background

The row centred on a new pay and grading structure designed to deal with the underlying problems that led to thousands of equal pay claims from women workers, past and present. For years, many women in jobs such as cleaning, catering and home care were paid less than men in comparable roles, prompting a high-profile campaign and strike action.

The council's challenge has been to build a new system that ends that discrimination for good. But its original proposal would have left 11% of the employees assessed so far facing a cut in wages, turning a reform intended to deliver fairness into a source of fresh anger.

The prospect of "fire and rehire", in which staff are dismissed and offered new contracts on different terms, raised the stakes further. The tactic is widely criticised by unions and would have affected the council's entire workforce of more than 23,000 people.

What has changed

Under the new deal, those who would have lost out will have their salaries protected for three years. That gives them a period of stability while the new structure beds in.

Council leader Ricky Bell said he was "delighted" to have reached agreement with Unison. "This deal means we are able to remove the unpalatable prospect of fire and rehire, with proposals put to members in a ballot later this month," he said.

He described it as a "strong and fair deal" and confirmed that the GMB and Unite unions had also agreed to put it to their members.

"With all three unions now engaging with their memberships, we are moving closer to the outcome we have always wanted to achieve: ending pay discrimination in Glasgow City Council once and for all," he added.

Government money and a firm limit

Mr Bell said additional support from the Scottish government had "helped unlock this agreement" and thanked the unions for their engagement.

He was equally clear that this is the final offer. "While there is no further money to come as part of this package, I look forward to the outcome of the ballots in the coming weeks," he said.

That warning matters. It means the decision now rests with the workforce. If members of Unison, the GMB and Unite accept the deal, Glasgow could finally close a chapter that has dominated its finances and industrial relations for years. If they reject it, the council has signalled it has nothing more to put on the table.

What comes next

Ballots across the three unions are expected in the coming weeks. Union officials will be weighing the three-year protection against concerns about what happens to affected staff once that period ends.

For the council, the stakes are both financial and reputational. Glasgow has already paid out large sums to settle historic equal pay claims, and it cannot afford a new generation of disputes created by its own reforms.

For workers, many of them low-paid women who spent years fighting to be treated equally, the question is simpler: whether this deal finally delivers the fairness they were promised without leaving some of them worse off.

The ballot results will decide whether Scotland's largest council has at last found a settlement its staff can accept.