Quarriers Staff Back Strike Action Over Pay

Staff at Quarriers, one of Scotland’s biggest charities, have voted for strike action in a dispute over pay. Unison, the public-sector union, said its members had voted two to one in favour of a strike after talks with management broke down. They also voted by three to one in favour of industrial action short of a strike.

The dispute is over a pay offer of 2.5% and a refusal by management to target rises at the lowest-paid staff members, Unison said last night.

Simon Macfarlane, Unison regional officer, called on Quarriers management to return to the negotiating table in light of what he called a “magnificent result” which demonstrated the strength of feeling among union staff at the charity.

He said: “Quarriers can’t blame others while continuing to inflict poverty on their staff and their families. They need to speak up more for decent funding to ensure they can pay their staff a decent wage.”

The union is considering strike action on April 25 but said measures would be taken to ensure vulnerable service users were not “significantly affected”. No-one was available for comment at Quarriers last night.