GLASGOW could face another council strike as a union has rejected a national pay offer and plans to ballot on industrial action.

Unite, which has many members at Glasgow City Council, rejected a revised 3% pay offer from local Government body Cosla.

Leaders said the members have authorised the union to move to a ballot.

In the ballot on the pay offer 73% rejected the proposed deal and of those who rejected 88% indicated support for industrial action.

The news comes as the city faces two days of strike action by Unison and GMB over equal pay settlements.

Schools will close next week as the workers stage a 48-hour stoppage next Tuesday and Wednesday and home care services for the elderly and vulnerable in the city will be severely disrupted.

A strike by Unite if it is voted for could hit services across the council with staff employed in various departments.

Unite said it represents some of the lowest paid council staff across the country.

It argues workers are being offered less than teachers and they want pay parity across the local government workforce but Cosla said the offer of a 3% increase for those earning up to £80,000 puts staff on a par with those working in the NHS and other parts of the public sector.

It said the deal would means some staff only receiving £7.35 a week before tax.

Ann Farrell, Chair of Unite Scotland’s Local Authority committee said: “Unite members have emphatically rejected the revised pay offer. This outcome was inevitable in light of COSLA’s failure to properly and fairly reward the lowest paid workers in local government.

“The reality for thousands of Unite members was a comparatively worse position as a result of this offer, which is completely unacceptable. Unite will now move towards a legal ballot following the mandate we have received from our membership, whereby we will be urging all Unite members to vote for industrial action”.

The union said its local government craft membership including painters and joiners are also being consulted on the pay offer .

Cosla resources spokeswoman, Gail Macgregor, said: “ I am disappointed that with various ballots now under way and more on the horizon that my own priority of getting the backdated pay rise into the pay packets of our workforce looks unlikely to happen anytime soon.”