Glasgow City Council to Fire and Rehire More Than 23,000 Employees Amid Pay Dispute

Glasgow City Council plans to fire and rehire more than 23,000 employees as part of an ongoing dispute over pay, according to a report from the BBC.

The council said redundancy notices issued to affected staff would be withdrawn if three trade unions agree to hold a ballot allowing their members to vote on the council's current pay offer. The fire-and-rehire approach, which involves formally terminating employees' contracts before offering to rehire them under new terms, is a tactic that has drawn criticism from labor unions in other high-profile disputes across the UK in recent years.

A high-stakes pay dispute

The scale of the potential action, affecting more than 23,000 workers, would make it one of the largest fire-and-rehire disputes involving a UK local authority. Unions representing council employees have generally opposed the use of such tactics, arguing they undermine job security and can be used to pressure workers into accepting less favorable terms than they might otherwise negotiate.

The council's offer to withdraw redundancy notices in exchange for a member ballot suggests it is seeking to avoid the disruption of mass terminations while still moving the pay dispute toward resolution through a formal vote of union members.

The BBC's report did not specify the details of the pay offer in question, the identities of the three unions involved, or a timeline for when a ballot might take place.