The union claimed the move would breach the council’s own policy and “lead to disciplinary triggers if a commute takes more than an hour”.

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It warned that if strike action goes ahead in the new year, the walkout by staff in the city’s housing services – who overwhelmingly backed strike action and action short of a strike in a consultative ballot in August – would cancel “all housing services repairs and maintenance” for Edinburgh council tenants.

Unite previously clashed with Edinburgh Council in 2023 over the rollout of ‘telematics’ tracking technology across the authority’s 1,200-vehicle fleet of vans, cars and GHVs, after it had already been fitted to waste collection trucks.

At the time, union officials warned that telematics data – including fuel consumption, routes driven and other metrics – could be used against workers in disciplinary proceedings.

Graeme Smith, convener of Unite’s Edinburgh Council branch, called for “iron-clad protection against misuse” of the data by “rogue managers”. The council said the aim of using telematics is to improve driver behaviour, reduce accidents and reduce exposure to “high risk driving situations” rather than to investigate misconduct by employees.

Announcing the ballot, which closes on January 5, Unite said: “In June 2025, Edinburgh council proposed introducing ‘exception reports’ which record each time a vehicle is used more than an hour before or after a shift. These reports are thereafter sent on to line manages.

“Unions previously negotiated a telematics policy with the council so that it was based on the system improving driving standards and ensuring safety. It had protections against using the technology to intrude on members’ privacy. The policy was agreed to in May 2023.

“Under the policy, managers must request telematics data from Fleet Services and have legitimate reasons for accessing the data. The council is now trying to breach its own policy through exception reports.

“Unite’s housing services members are concerned about ‘overreach’ into their privacy, and the potential abuse of the telematics system by management to target workers which will lead to disciplinary triggers if a commute takes more than an hour.

“The union has raised repeated concerns with Edinburgh council to avoid an escalation in the industrial dispute, but management have continued to signal their intention to proceed with the exception reports.”

Edinburgh Council was contacted for a response.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Edinburgh council have continued down a route which is causing major concerns for our members in housing services.

“The changes to the tracking system have the potential to be abused by management to target workers. That’s entirely unacceptable. Unite will back our members all the way in this fight.

“Unite has no option but to ballot our members in Edinburgh council’s housing services because management continue to ignore our calls for dialogue.

“The proposed change to the tracking system’s use are designed to do one thing only and that is to further increase the surveillance on workers.

“New technology is being introduced without sufficient controls to ensure its use is fair and reasonable.”