UNION leaders say striking janitors have the full support of parents as staff prepare for their 65th walkout.

Employees are to stage a further wave of strikes on April, 25, 26 and 27 in a year-long dispute over pay and conditions.

The janitors are in dispute with employers Cordia over its refusal to pay a Working Context and Demands Payment for duties which involve physical demand, working outdoors or dealing with unpleasant conditions.

Last month, Cordia, withdrew a pay offer to jannies after unions rejected a new scheme that would see 30 “operational clusters”, ending the system of one janitor per school.

The arm’s-length council firm’s proposal would have meant the loss of 33 jobs from the 219 janitors employed in schools across Glasgow.

Unison opposed the cluster model saying it would leave leaving schools without a janitor at certain points of the day compromising health and safety and security and say they have the support of families.

Cordia, however, has said that the deal would mean higher wages, shorter working hours and no compulsory redundancies.

The janitors have taken 64 days of strike action since March 2016.

Sam McCartney, of Unison, said: “The janitors rejected the deal because families rejected the deal.

“What the council wanted to do was remove janitors from every school. 

“The families of Glasgow decided they weren’t going to accept this, they want them in the building.

“Every day, janitors are apologising to families and they respect that.

“We’ve now basically got a situation where Cordia is calling the shots to the council when it should be the other way round.

“Opposition councillors are telling us they would resolve this quickly is they were the current occupants of the City Chamber.

“They want to take the janitors service in-house.

“Our agenda has always been to secure a working context payment and defend the current set-up of one school, one janitor.”

Cordia’s director of services Andy Clark said: “Sadly Unison leaders recently rejected our janitorial reform plan, which would have resulted in higher wages, shorter working hours and no compulsory redundancies.

“It’s unfortunate we have reached this impasse, but we could not implement the reforms without the co-operation of all the unions involved. 

“That offer is now off the table, and we are looking into finding other ways of making savings in the service.”