STRIKING care workers from three Scottish council areas staged a joint rally for equal pay today as their union insisted that they must not be accused of putting key services at risk by being “greedy.”

Home carers in Falkirk launched four days of strikes last Friday and their colleagues at Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire councils were set to join a mass walkout yesterday.

The row comes after care workers, who are mostly low-paid women, rejected internal reviews of their pay grades, arguing that their responsibilities have significantly increased.

GMB Scotland says they are among women working in the public sector whose roles may have been undervalued in comparison with similar work done by male colleagues.

The joint rally saw workers from the three council areas gather in Glasgow’s George Square today to demand a resolution of the dispute.

First Minister Humza Yousaf was urged to intervene last week amid concerns that councils are not responding quickly enough.

The union has warned that higher pay grades could be added retrospectively, with workers claiming up to five years’ back pay — and effectively bankrupting some councils.

GMB Scottish secretary Louise Gilmour said the affected women may be “guilted” into believing they are being “greedy” if councils claim that essential services will be axed to cover the cost of the payouts.

She said: “We know local authorities are struggling to make ends meet and we know why.

“But to suggest women workers are somehow making things worse by asking for money they are owed, and in many cases have been owed for years, is as dishonest as it is disgraceful.

“To blame equal pay claims instead of the system for pay discrimination that has prevailed in our councils is scapegoating workers only asking for what they are owed.

“It is an attempt to guilt women into believing they are being greedy and risking men’s jobs by simply asking for what they are due and have been due for years and years.

“The cost of settling equal pay issues is looming over Scotland’s local councils, but is not about women, it is about fairness and has been too long coming.”

GMB Scotland has equal pay campaigns already under way at Dundee, Perth and Kinross, Angus, Fife and Moray councils, with a process expected to lead to pay reviews at more than a dozen other local authorities across Scotland.

Falkirk, West Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire health and social care partnerships said that talks with union reps were ongoing.