Strike causes court chaos

Glasgow District Court deals with 2,000 cases a week

A strike by council workers has forced one of Scotland's busiest courts to drop hundreds of criminal cases.

More than half the cases due to be heard at Glasgow District Court have been abandoned because of the industrial action.

The disruption has been defended by Unison, which said it had been left with no other way to try to secure an improved pay settlement.

And it has warned that the action may be extended to Dumfries later in the week.

Some staff are on indefinite strike

The union's Glasgow branch secretary Angela Lynes said: "Our staff play a vital role in the district court in Glasgow, a valuable role, and it just shows that they should be receiving a fair pay for it.

"We did notify Glasgow City Council two-and-a-half months in advance that these staff would be brought out and they chose to ignore that fact."

But Glasgow councillor James Mutter, a spokesman for Cosla, urged members to call off their action.

"There is no more money on the table," he said.

Indefinite strike

Glasgow District Court normally handles around 2,000 cases per week, covering everything from breach of the peace to assault and drugs offences.

But since the beginning of the month about 50 members of court staff have been on indefinite strike backing action for a higher pay award for local government workers.

This tactic is running alongside a series of one-day stoppages.

About 70,000 Unison workers took part in the third day of action across Scotland on Thursday in pursuit of a higher offer than the 6.1% over two years currently on the table.

Council services such as refuse collection, social work and leisure centres have been disrupted by the strike action.

It is a matter of concern to the procurators fiscal and we are in close liaison with the police to try to resolve this issue

Crown Office spokesman

The striking district court workers are part of a selected group of more than 600 administrative staff which went on indefinite strike.

It is understood that attempts have been made to delay or re-arrange as many cases as possible at the Glasgow court.

But the Crown Office, which handles criminal prosecutions in Scotland, has confirmed it has already been forced to release hundreds of defendants because of the growing backlog.

A spokesman said: "We have discretion to defer cases that have already commenced, but when it comes to new cases we are having to look at ways of dealing with them.

The Crown Office is in talks with the police

"When it comes to custody cases, we are redirecting these to stipendiary magistrates where possible, but we can confirm that we are having to drop a large number of cases.

"It is a matter of concern to the procurators fiscal and we are in close liaison with the police to try to resolve this issue."

The Scottish Tories' justice spokesman Phil Gallie said staff should not be able to hold the justice system to ransom, allowing defendants to walk free.

He said the situation emphasised the extent of the backlog of cases, which he blamed on government underfunding.

"For us to willy-nilly abandon serious charges seems to me to be total failure by the Scottish Executive," he said.

Drugs offences

A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said the fiscal's office was making the best of a difficult situation.

She added that it was possible some of the dropped cases would be re-raised.

The district court handles cases such as breach of the peace, shoplifting, assault and drugs offences.

The GMB and TGWU unions originally sided with Unison in the dispute, but voted to accept the latest deal after Cosla upped its original offer of 2.5% for one year.

Scotland's councils are now planning to impose a pay offer on workers as attempts continue to try to settle the long-running dispute.