Scottish Government throwing money at public-sector deals, says Findlay

The Scottish Government is “blindly throwing money” at public-sector pay deals rather than having “tough conversations” with trade unions, the Scottish Tory leader has said.

Ministers in recent years have boasted about public-sector staff in Scotland being paid more than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK, as well as the fact there have been no strikes taken in the NHS.

But this has often been as a result of the Government paying more than expected or finding last-minute funding to cover the cost of deals for workers.

Russell Findlay, who took over as head of the Scottish Tories in September, has pushed for more restraint from the Scottish Government in its public-sector pay deals.

Speaking to the PA news agency in Glasgow, Mr Findlay said: “John Swinney’s Government has spent years agreeing record-breaking public-sector pay rises without any regard to whether these are sustainable.

“They have done so with no regard whatsoever to any reform, no trade-off in terms of higher wages resulting in better services, blindly throwing money at the public sector and turning the screw on the wealth-creating private sector.”

He added: “Nobody wants strikes in the public sector.”

Mr Findlay said Mr Swinney and his predecessors have accepted “every demand put to them without any form of meaningful negotiation or pushback”.

“They would rather pay the price for that than have some tough conversations about how to improve things for people.”

Earlier this month, non-teaching school staff from the trade union Unison targeted First Minister Mr Swinney’s constituency with strikes, disrupting primary schools in the Perth and Kinross Council area.

As a result, the Scottish Government and local authority body Cosla offered a new pay protocol, along with a £15 an hour minimum rate and a reduction to the working week.

Mr Findlay was at Eusebi’s Deli in Glasgow’s west end on Monday to discuss his proposals ahead of the Scottish Government’s Budget next week.

The Scottish Tories are pushing for full rates relief for pubs and restaurants, which he said would cost “upwards of £70 million”, but was a “drop in the ocean” of the Scottish Government’s Budget.

Mr Findlay said: “We believe that if John Swinney was in any way serious about appreciating the difficulty this sector is facing, if he was in any way serious about protecting businesses like this and growing the economy, which therefore would result in more revenue being generated for public services, he would look at this proposal, along with all the other proposals being put to him, and come to a way of understanding that is the healthy and obvious way to proceed.”

A spokesperson for Finance Secretary Shona Robison said: “During an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the Tories now appear to be saying that hard-working nurses and teachers should have their pay cut.

“The Scottish Tories backed the notorious mini-budget which sent household costs through the roof for families across Scotland – now they are condemning the wage increases many workers needed to make ends meet as a result of the economic chaos the former Tory government unleashed.

“The Tories already said they want to cut public spending in Scotland by £1 billion – now it seems clear they would do this on the backs of hard-working public servants.

“The 2024-25 Scottish Budget delivers a competitive non-domestic rates regime including the lowest poundage in the UK for the sixth year in a row, and a package of reliefs worth £727 million as at June 1 2024. Our small business bonus scheme remains the most generous of its kind in the UK.”