Members of Scotland’s largest trade union have rejected the latest pay offer for council staff.

Thousands of Unison members (86%), including waste and recycling workers, turned down the offer of a £1,292 per year or 3.6% rise – whichever was higher.

The union was one of three to suspend strikes, alongside the GMB and Unite, days before they were set to go ahead last month.

The GMB has already accepted the offer, tabled by local authority governing body Cosla, while Unite is due to give its response later this week.

Unison will decide on its next steps in the coming days, which could include strikes.

The offer includes an hourly uplift of £0.67 or a 3.6% increase, whichever is higher.

However, the union says this falls short of expectations given the 25% real-terms pay cut over the past 14 years, and council workers in Scotland are angry their pay offer is not in line with other public service workers, many of whom have been given 5.5% pay rises.

Less than 24 hours after the latest offer was made, a freeze on non-essential spending was announced, with First Minister John Swinney saying “tough choices” had to be made.

The government has already confirmed it will need to take money from other areas, such as nature and iPad funds to settle the pay deal.

Unison has mandates for strike action by waste and recycling workers at 13 councils, and for education and early years staff at five councils.

Its local government committee chairperson Colette Hunter said Cosla and the Scottish government needed to understand the anger among council staff.

“They want a fair increase to stop their pay consistently falling behind, and for their wage increase to be in line with other areas of the economy,” she said.

“The last thing anyone wants to do is go on strike, but local government workers deserve better.”

Unison Scotland’s co-lead for local government David O’Connor added: “Councils are in crisis. They struggle to recruit because workers are expected to deliver even more with fewer staff and lower wages.

“That puts workers and the services they provide under intolerable pressure. It’s unsustainable it can’t go on.”

Staff in 26 of Scotland’s 32 council areas had initially planned to walk out between 14 and 22 August after rejecting two previous Cosla deals.

They had been offered a 3.2% rise, backdated to April.

They warned there would be a repeat of scenes from the summer of 2022, when rubbish piled up on the streets in cities including Edinburgh and Glasgow.