Council workers have indicated they are prepared to take industrial action as a pay dispute threatens to escalate.

Officials at the Unison trade union revealed an indicative ballot of members found that 89.8% of respondents said they would be willing to take some form of action, up to and including a strike, in pursuit of an acceptable offer.

Strike action could affect vital services such as bin collections.

The union has now written to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), which represents all 32 councils across the country, about the issue in a joint letter with Unite and the GMB.

In the letter, officials claim that Cosla has failed to come up with an acceptable pay offer for local government workers and says pay for these staff has been “held down for too many years.”

They added that they “hoped Cosla leaders would have recognised the strength of feeling expressed by the workers but, instead, learnt that pay wasn’t even initially an agenda item at their last meeting.”

However, the letter also states that union negotiators will remain available for further talks in the hope the dispute can be resolved promptly.

Unison said it will now be moving to a formal ballot on industrial action.

Johanna Baxter, Unison Scotland’s head of local government, added: “It’s obvious that Cosla hasn’t been considering pay as a key issue for council staff.

“This is poor judgment on their behalf and shows a disappointing lack of engagement.

“For too many years, pay in local government has been held down and the cost-of-living crisis is pushing many hard-working people into poverty.

“Industrial action is always a last resort but workers are desperate to be heard.”

A Cosla spokesperson said: “We remain in ongoing discussions with our trade union colleagues in relation to pay.”