NHS workers have called on the health secretary to take action to prevent a third year of pension contribution increases.
Members of Unison, which represents staff in the health service, are angry about the increases to their contributions introduced by the Scottish Government for 2012-13 and 2013-14.
They want Alex Neil to help prevent a third year of rises in contributions in 2014-15 and pay for this with efficiency savings instead.
The union’s plea comes the day before Mr Neil is due to make a keynote speech at Unison Scotland’s health conference in Glasgow.
Willie Duffy, the union’s lead organiser for health, said: “The Scottish Government could make different choices and health workers will want to know from him why they should be paying more when they have effectively had pay cuts for the last couple of years.
The Scottish Government says it opposes the increased pension contributions but it would face financial penalties from the UK Government if it did not implement them.
Mr Neil said: “The UK Government has put us in the position where funding for frontline services would suffer if we do not follow their rules on pension payments.
“We want to see pensions which are fair and sustainable, and we remain committed to continuing to work closely with unions oand are in dialogue with all Scottish healthcare unions.”