THE SNP Scottish government and councils face a “stinking summer” unless they deliver improved pay to their lowest-paid workers, unions have warned.

One week after the largest trade union in Scottish local government, Unison, rejected the latest Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) pay offer, Unite and GMB have formally followed suit, raising the spectre of a return to the refuse collection strikes seen two years ago during the Edinburgh Festival.

Cllr Katie Hagmann, resources spokeswoman at Cosla, said she was disappointed that the unions had rejected their latest offer, amounting to 3.2 per cent, but insisted that it was “at the very limit of affordability” for councils and beyond the SNP Scottish government’s 2 per cent public-sector pay policy.

GMB Scotland senior organiser Keir Greenaway, whose members across almost half of Scotland’s councils have backed a strike over pay, said: “For Cosla to suggest this is a revised and improved offer only insults the intelligence of our members.

“It is merely a repackaging of the previous offer already rejected as too low and too late.

“It begs the question: why have more weeks been squandered on this when time is running out to halt imminent industrial action?”

Unite, whose members in 16 councils had already backed strike action over pay, also dismissed the offer, pointing out it falls well short of the pay rise agreed with similarly graded workers in English councils, who won 5.2 per cent this year.

The union’s industrial officer Graham McNab said: “Cosla’s latest pay offer doesn’t add any extra cash.

“It continues to grossly undervalue Scotland’s council workers compared with the offer made to their counterparts across the UK.

“A stinking Scottish summer looms unless Cosla and the Scottish government quickly sort this out by injecting more cash into a new offer.

“The Scottish government can no longer sit idly by — we are on the brink of nationwide strike action which could last for months.”

Commenting on the dispute, Scottish Labour local government spokesman Mark Griffin said: “Another summer of bin strike chaos is looming if the SNP does not act.

“It is the SNP government’s brutal cuts to council budgets that created this mess and it is their responsibility to fix it.”

However, speaking on a visit to Peterhead, SNP First Minister John Swinney said it was for councils and unions to resolve the matter.

He said: “I am keen that dialogue and discussions are able to take their course.”