CITY council leader Frank McAveety has hit out at community safety staff who walk out this weekend in their seventh strike over pay.

Around 100 employees including community enforcement officers, community payback officers, CCTV operators and security staff are expected to take industrial action.

They are unhappy they receive less pay for working evenings and weekends than other colleagues in the rest of the council family.

According to figures obtained by the Evening Times, community safety staff received pay increases in October this year ranging from 0.12% to more than 24%.

The highest wage rise of 24.36% went to CCTV operators whose salaries rose from £18,800 to £23,379 and in October next year that will increase to £24,636 - an rise of 31% in a year.

Wages for CCTV supervisors rose by more than 23% from £22,763 to £28,070 in October and will increase to £29,735 in October next year representing a total increase of more than 30%.

At the bottom of the scale, community payback officer who work varying shift patterns had a rise of only 0.12% in October this year taking their salaries to £25,524.

The salary figures are made up of basic pay and shift allowances.

Community Safety Glasgow is one of the city council's arms-length organisations.

Council leader Frank McAveety said: "This is a pick and mix union negotiation. Unison want high core pay and then the highest shift allowances.

"At a time when the poorest in Glasgow are having benefits slashed by hundreds of pounds, wage rises in the thousands are not good enough for the Unison leaders."

"The Unison leaders are putting the jobs of their members at risk and the lives of the Glasgow public at risk on a strike on Guy Fawkes weekend.

"Almost all the union workers called out have already signed up to the new contracts and many have had salary increases for the next year running into thousands of pounds. You could not make this up.

"A CCTV operator will have a £5000 hike in their wages by this time next year to £25,000 which is a 30% increase and Unison is calling these staff out on strike.

"Why have the Unison leaders called a strike. It is totally unjustified, reckless and the politics of Alice in Wonderland.

"If this goes on and on, maybe we can go back to square one and return to where all the wages at Community Safety Glasgow were before the re-grading.

"Would the Unison leaders by happy then? Aye right."

A Unison spokesman said disputed the council's argument that staff have been given wage rises saying it does not compensate for lower shift payments.

He said: "Most shift workers in CSG have had poor or no shift payments for years.

"The council can’t just wish that away by giving them something now without a comparison to the rest of the council.

"The increases in core pay in no way compensate for the lower shift payments compared to all other council workers.

"The shift payment for a CCTV worker if they were employed by the council would be 50% higher.

"A community paypack worker’s payment would be 100% more."