Historic strike pays off for Scottish police staff

A new pay and conditions agreement has been reached for the 4,000 police staff in Scotland, following the first-ever strike in their history.

The deal provides an immediate 3.4% pay increase, backdated to 1 September 2005. There well be a further increase of 2.25% on 1 September 2006, plus a further 0.25% if agreement is reached on future modernisation of the Scottish Police Service. And negotiations on the 2006 increase will be re-opened if the Scottish local government settlement for 2006 exceeds 2.5%.

Also included are an agreement in principle on an ethical code of conduct, a model grievance procedure and a model capability procedure.

Police staff work in control rooms, forensic science labs, at scenes of crimes, and in police stations. About 3,400 are members of public services union UNISON, which called a one-day strike on 25 August following what it called a "wholly insufficient" earlier offer.