Scottish Water staff stage a two-day strike from midnight today amid a continued dispute over pay.
Workers will be out Tuesday and Wednesday following a one-day strike last month.
Three unions are taking part in the action, Unite, the GMB and Unison.
The publicly-owned company said it had contingency plans in place to maintain services.
Unison warned that emergency repairs and water quality checks would not be carried out and problems with supply or sewage would have to wait until the strike was over.
It said it had rejected a 2.6% pay offer, amounting to at least £1,050, saying it "fails to compensate staff for a decade of real-term pay cuts", although Scottish Water said the current offer was higher.
'Last resort'
Unison Scotland regional organiser Emma Phillips said: "Strike action is always a last resort.
"Staff have suffered a decade of pay deals that haven't kept up with inflation.
"They are not willing to be underpaid any longer.
"The union has done everything it can to try and get Scottish Water's senior managers to put a fair offer on the table, but they are refusing to be reasonable."
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Our members at Scottish Water provide a key function. Despite the essential work they do, they have seen their pay eroded for years, they are simply no longer prepared to tolerate this situation.
"Unite does what it says on the tin, and will support workers all the way in fighting for better jobs, pay."
Claire Greer, GMB Scotland organiser, said the company revised its offer after talks with conciliation service Acas but only made it worse.
She said: "Its pay offer covering last year and a substantial part of this year was too long, too complicated but, most importantly, too low.
"The strikes will go on and action will escalate until our members are made a fair and acceptable offer."
Improved offer
Peter Farrer, Scottish Water's chief operating officer, said: "No-one benefits from industrial action, and our focus is on continuing to deliver for our millions of customers across Scotland.
"Our above-inflation pay proposal is fair and progressive, prioritising the highest percentage increases in the business for those on the lowest salary grades - money that should be in employees' pockets now."
He said both sides met the conciliation service Acas earlier this month to try to resolve the dispute, and since then an improved offer had been made.
"This is a good proposal, and we are disappointed that union officials have not shared it with their members and given them the opportunity to vote on the offer in a ballot," he said.
"We urge the unions to get back round the negotiating table as soon as possible."
He added: "We don't recognise the 2.6% number in Unison's statement and it's not been part of the offer in our negotiations.
"The pay offer is an above-inflation 3.4% increase for 2024/25, with a guaranteed pay rise of at least £1,400 for those on the lowest job grades
Workers will be out Tuesday and Wednesday following a one-day strike last month.
Three unions are taking part in the action, Unite, the GMB and Unison.
The publicly-owned company said it had contingency plans in place to maintain services.
Unison warned that emergency repairs and water quality checks would not be carried out and problems with supply or sewage would have to wait until the strike was over.
It said it had rejected a 2.6% pay offer, amounting to at least £1,050, saying it "fails to compensate staff for a decade of real-term pay cuts", although Scottish Water said the current offer was higher.
'Last resort'
Unison Scotland regional organiser Emma Phillips said: "Strike action is always a last resort.
"Staff have suffered a decade of pay deals that haven't kept up with inflation.
"They are not willing to be underpaid any longer.
"The union has done everything it can to try and get Scottish Water's senior managers to put a fair offer on the table, but they are refusing to be reasonable."
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Our members at Scottish Water provide a key function. Despite the essential work they do, they have seen their pay eroded for years, they are simply no longer prepared to tolerate this situation.
"Unite does what it says on the tin, and will support workers all the way in fighting for better jobs, pay."
Claire Greer, GMB Scotland organiser, said the company revised its offer after talks with conciliation service Acas but only made it worse.
She said: "Its pay offer covering last year and a substantial part of this year was too long, too complicated but, most importantly, too low.
"The strikes will go on and action will escalate until our members are made a fair and acceptable offer."
Improved offer
Peter Farrer, Scottish Water's chief operating officer, said: "No-one benefits from industrial action, and our focus is on continuing to deliver for our millions of customers across Scotland.
"Our above-inflation pay proposal is fair and progressive, prioritising the highest percentage increases in the business for those on the lowest salary grades - money that should be in employees' pockets now."
He said both sides met the conciliation service Acas earlier this month to try to resolve the dispute, and since then an improved offer had been made.
"This is a good proposal, and we are disappointed that union officials have not shared it with their members and given them the opportunity to vote on the offer in a ballot," he said.
"We urge the unions to get back round the negotiating table as soon as possible."
He added: "We don't recognise the 2.6% number in Unison's statement and it's not been part of the offer in our negotiations.
"The pay offer is an above-inflation 3.4% increase for 2024/25, with a guaranteed pay rise of at least £1,400 for those on the lowest job grades
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NewsTranscript
00:00We're here with our members at Scottish Water today at Shield Hall. It's simple, this is
00:05an avoidable dispute that we're having just now, it's round about the derisory pay offer
00:09that's been put on the table for last year for our members, it's just not good enough.
00:14Our members have been patient, we've brought different offers to the table and a bid to
00:19try and resolve this and Scottish Water are not interested and will not move on their
00:23£1,400 offer. The strike for Scottish Water today, it's national, it's right across the
00:28whole of Scotland. There's picket lines across every region, every area in Scotland today.
00:33We're aware how this can affect the public today, how it affects businesses but there's been no
00:38other option. We've been pushed into this position, nobody wants to take industrial action but
00:43unfortunately this is where we are just now and this is our final call to try and get a resolution
00:50on this and to get a decent pay offer for our members. You can see yourself the amount of
00:53people that's turned out at these picket lines today, the feeling is strong. People are
00:58angry, people are upset, people feel that they're not getting given a pay rise that's due to their
01:02worth. You know the work that these guys and girls carry out every day for the majority of the time
01:08goes unseen and that's because of how well they do their jobs. You know we don't have massive issues
01:12with water in Scotland and that's to do with the people at the front line carrying out their job day
01:17to day. That's not because we've got executives sitting on boards and hundreds of thousands of
01:21pounds a year refusing to give a decent pay offer to our members. The workers that are out in
01:25strike today, they carry out a broad range of jobs right across Scotland. They make sure that the
01:29water that comes through your taps is clean, it's drinkable, they make sure that the dirty water in
01:33your house and your businesses leaves the property, they make sure that the water's purified, you know
01:38they make sure they carry out flooding defences. It's enormous the jobs that they do in Scottish
01:42Water. It's a service that people expect just to be carried out every day without realising the work
01:47that goes into it. These are skilled members of staff, you know they're poorly paid. This pay offer that
01:53they've been offered this year is way below what they're expecting and this is the only way that
01:57they can you know see an end to getting an end to this dispute. This dispute is avoidable. This pay
02:02offer that you have on the table has been rejected numerous occasions by our member. Come back to the
02:07table, offer the you know the workers that do the work for you every day a decent pay offer and let's put
02:13an end to this. The strength of feeling is that there's an anger against management. I think there's an
02:18arrogance when it comes to the way that Scottish Water staff and our members have been treated.
02:25It's not been good enough. The types of workers who are on strike today are workers who deal with
02:30pipe work, who are electricians, who work in the offices. Anyone who provides an essential service for
02:38Scottish Water has taken industrial action of all three unions both GMB, Unison and Unite My Union.
02:44Alex Plant, the chief executive, has not attended one meeting with us despite getting a remuneration
02:50package of under half a million pounds. This is a public body and this is not how our members should
02:56be treated who are on the front line. Recently they had a customer survey back, the best results ever but
03:02yet they still haven't changed on their current offer. Managers and chief executives are receiving,
03:09they receive double bonuses not just a bonus and it's just not good enough.
03:14The pay offer for 2024 is 2.86%, that's less than the rest of the public sector, less than the rest of
03:22the private sector and additionally the Scottish Water management have got massive bonuses and are
03:28paid the most in the public sector of anyone in Scotland. At the moment we've got two days of
03:33industrial action, we've got a further two days planned, we've already had some industrial action.
03:38We're going to continue this fight until Scottish Water sit and listen and put a fair pay offer on
03:44the table and if they're not willing to do it the Scottish Government should intervene and make sure
03:49that they do. My message is treat your workers with respect. Your own staff survey says 83% of them
03:58feel underpaid and undervalued. Give them a fair pay rise.