This city council is set to fire and rehire 23,000 employees after pay talks collapse

Glasgow City Council is preparing to dismiss more than 23,000 non-teaching employees and offer them new contracts after negotiations with trade unions over a revised pay and grading system broke down.

According to reporting by the BBC, dismissal letters will be issued next week to the council's non-teaching workforce, with replacement contracts scheduled to take effect from 1 January. The move follows the collapse of talks between the council and unions GMB, Unison and Unite, after Unison declined to ballot its members on a proposed pay offer.

The development has drawn attention across the UK because of its scale and because it involves a public sector employer seeking to implement significant workplace changes through a fire-and-rehire process.

A dispute rooted in equal pay reform

The negotiations centred on Glasgow City Council's effort to introduce a new pay and grading framework following years of scrutiny over unequal pay practices.

According to the BBC, the existing system was found to discriminate against predominantly female workers, prompting a lengthy process to redesign pay structures and align them with equality requirements.

Last month, the council approved a major overhaul of its grading system after eight years of negotiations.

Key features of the proposed framework include:

• 63% of affected employees would benefit financially
• Around 90% of staff would receive a pay rise or see no reduction in pay, according to council estimates
• 11% of employees would experience salary reductions
• The largest anticipated pay decrease is approximately £11,500 per year

The council has stated dismissal notices would be withdrawn if all three unions agreed to ballot members on the latest offer.

Who will be affected?

The proposed dismissals cover the council's entire non-teaching workforce.

According to the BBC, affected employees include:

• Chief executive Susanne Millar
• Nursery staff
• Refuse collection workers
• Administrative employees
• Other non-teaching council personnel

The authority has said employees accepting the revised contracts would move immediately onto new terms, with continuity of service remaining intact.

Council says it has exhausted options

Colin Edgar, Glasgow City Council's director of communications and corporate governance, said negotiations had reached an impasse.

According to BBC reporting, Edgar said there was now "no agreed way forward" between the council and trade unions following the breakdown in talks.

The council maintains the revised pay system removes unequal pay arrangements and increases the overall wage bill. Officials also noted unions negotiated an extension of pay protection for affected employees from six months to twelve months.

Edgar criticised Unison's decision not to ballot members on the proposal, saying an accepted ballot process could have removed dismissals from consideration and delivered additional payments to employees due back pay.

Unions push back against fire-and-rehire plan

Trade unions have strongly opposed the council's approach.

Unison Scotland described the proposal as a "scandalous threat" and called for the dismissal notices to be withdrawn.

Regional organiser Mandy McDowall said workers should not be pressured into accepting a settlement through dismissal notices and deadlines. She stated the union would continue negotiations and ballot members once discussions had concluded.

Unite the Union also criticised the proposal. Industrial officer Graham McNabb said the council should remove threats linked to wage reductions and fire-and-rehire tactics from its proposed restructuring plan.

Meanwhile, both GMB and Unite had previously supported putting the revised offer to members for consideration, while warning against the use of dismissals as a negotiating tool.

Additional funding fails to resolve differences

According to the BBC, GMB and Unite previously said they had secured an additional £110 million funding package intended to address concerns affecting a large proportion of employees.

However, Unison maintained the funding would primarily support assimilation costs and back-pay arrangements rather than employees facing wage reductions under the new grading structure.

The disagreement ultimately contributed to the collapse of negotiations.

Long shadow of an equal pay dispute

The latest dispute stems from a wider equal pay controversy that has affected Glasgow City Council for years.

According to the BBC, the local authority has paid approximately £770 million in settlements after female employees in occupations such as cleaning and catering were found to have been paid less than workers in traditionally male-dominated roles, including refuse collection.

The new grading system was designed to resolve those disparities permanently by aligning pay structures with equality legislation. However, its implementation has created fresh tensions because a section of the workforce would see reduced earnings under the revised framework.