The council's homelessness service is in "crisis" as a strike by 70 caseworkers enters its ninth week, according to the union which represents them.

Frontline staff who deal with hundreds of desperate homeless people every day are paid up to £5,000 a year less than colleagues with similar responsibilities who work in other services.

They claim they are assessing clients' needs and linking them with other council services, not just arranging emergency accommodation.

Glasgow City Council is currently operating a reduced service for emergency cases only, which is staffed by team leaders.

All three community casework offices in the Gorbals, Barlanark and Possilpark are also closing early every day.

Notices placed in these offices state "acute staff shortages" mean they are "only able to deal with service users who require emergency temporary accommodation".

It adds: "If you do not require temporary accommodation, please return to the office at a later date."

Unison regional officer Mandy McDowall said: "Glasgow's homelessness system is in crisis, and Unison has been trying to talk to Glasgow City Council for weeks about the problems.

"There is a shortage of suitable accommodation and we have reports of families being accommodated in hotels as far away as South Lanarkshire, some for as long as ten days at an incredible cost to the public purse, not to mention anxiety to the families themselves.

"There is widespread concern about how much stress is being put on both homelessness workers and the people they work for."

The union met with two Labour councillors and two senior officials yesterday and there were "sharp exchanges", according to Unison Convenor Ian Leech.

He said: "Glasgow City Council today once again demonstrated their contempt for these workers by failing to table anything to resolve a nine week strike.

"At today's meeting Unison questioned who was running the council - unelected senior officers or the elected politicians? We believe that the conduct of this dispute from the council side exposes dysfunctionality at the heart of the council, with one senior officer openly hostile to the trade union and its members."

Mr Leech added: "The Unison Glasgow branch will be writing to our national office asking that all political fund payments from Unison to the Glasgow Labour Party are halted due to the way in which our members are being treated."

A council spokesman said: "We went into this meeting hoping that progress could be made on the issues at the heart of the dispute.

"Instead the meeting was largely dominated by political agendas unconnected to those issues.

"We have agreed to meet again with Unison next week and we would urge them to focus on the matter that has led them to take industrial action

"A review of the homelessness casework service has been underway which may offer a way forward.

"However, such a review takes time and requires to be assessed properly to ensure there is a robust business case for any changes to the service."