Glasgow Council Halts Fire-and-Rehire Plan in Pay Deal With Unison
Glasgow City Council reached an agreement with Unison on 5 October 2026 over pay and grading, averting a dismissal and re-engagement process covering 23,000 non-teaching staff. The deal ends the immediate threat of fire-and-rehire across the council's entire non-teaching workforce. The Guardian
Joint talks with GMB, Unite and Unison broke down when Unison refused to ballot members on a new pay and grading system. That system was designed to resolve historical equal pay issues. An earlier council offer had led Unison to walk out of negotiations. Dismissal and re-engagement, often called fire-and-rehire, means staff are dismissed and then rehired on new contracts.
After the collapse, the council wrote to all 23,000 non-teaching employees to warn they were at risk of dismissal and reappointment. Many would have been reappointed on less favourable terms. The original proposal would have cut wages for 11% of staff. The council later agreed to pause the plan to fire and rehire more than 23,000 staff, a pause reported on 26 September. BBC
The 5 October agreement centres on pay protection. The council agreed to protect the pay of affected staff for three years. It also agreed to continue negotiating on issues including the equality impacts of the new pay structure. The council's new proposal to Unison was described as 'strong and fair'. Council leader Ricky Bell and Unison Glasgow city branch secretary Chris Sermanni were the named principals as the deal was announced.
UNISON said on 5 October that it had secured major improvements on pay and grading at the council. The union will ballot its members in October 2026 on the agreement. The ballot will last four weeks. GMB and Unite have agreed to take the deal to their members. The Scottish government did not support fire-and-rehire schemes. BBC
In the 2023 local government pay campaign, UNISON members across all of Scotland's councils voted to accept the latest offer by 69.6% to 30.4%. In an earlier ballot over Glasgow equal pay, around 9,000 workers were balloted with 52.5% voting, and 96% of UNISON members backed strike action.
The broader context here is what this means for council-union bargaining. Three-year pay protection defuses the 11% loser problem without rewriting the grading spine. The threat is now lifted. Continued negotiation on equality impacts keeps the equal pay liability question open. Four-week ballots in three unions will test whether protection plus a revised offer is sufficient to carry a workforce that was told weeks earlier it could be dismissed.
