By Tash Shifrin
29 October 2009
A spate of job losses and a squeeze on pay and conditions have been stoking unrest across the public sector, ahead of the clampdown on spending expected in November’s Pre-Budget Report.
While the media has focused on postal workers’ strikes, there has been discontent among local government staff and civil servants.
Devon County Council issued a warning on October 27 of at least 500 job losses. This followed Birmingham City Council’s announcement that 800 posts would be axed in a move aimed at reducing a projected £26m budget deficit.
John Hart, leader of Devon council, said: ‘Whoever wins the next general election will have to make severe cuts in public spending. Local government will not escape those cuts and we have to be ready for them when they come.’
Elsewhere, unions have declared a dispute with Nottinghamshire County Council after it floated plans to cut terms and conditions – including redundancy pay – as part of a bid to save £83m over the next three years.
A series of disputes over new pay and grading structures continued in some local authorities, with Leeds refuse workers now in their eighth week of a strike. Union members in Sheffield and Brighton were balloting for action in similar disputes.
In the civil service, 850 members of the Public and Commercial Services union employed by contractor Fujitsu were set to hear the results of a strike ballot over job, pay and pension cuts on October 29. The staff provide IT support to government agencies.
UK Border Agency staff were also balloting for action, while the union has condemned plans to close offices and cut jobs at the Land Registry and Identity and Passport Service.
Unison head of local government Heather Wakefield told Public Finance that redundancies in councils ‘have obviously accelerated’. The union had tracked around 9,000 job losses over the past nine months, Wakefield said, branding it ‘nonsense’ to suggest the public sector was not already ‘sharing the pain’ of the recession.
A PCS spokesman said: ‘We’re very aware of the chancellor’s ongoing Operational Efficiency Review, which we expect he will report on in the PBR. Things are going to get worse and tougher.’
Unions representing 1.5 million council workers submitted a pay claim on October 26, seeking a 2.5% or £500 rise. Wakefield said this was ‘modest and takes account of the tough economic climate’.
But Sir Steve Bullock, chair of the Local Government Association Human Resources Panel, signalled a potential new area of conflict ahead, calling for pay restraint. ‘Now is not the time to be even thinking about an inflation-busting pay claim,’ he said.
29 October 2009
A spate of job losses and a squeeze on pay and conditions have been stoking unrest across the public sector, ahead of the clampdown on spending expected in November’s Pre-Budget Report.
While the media has focused on postal workers’ strikes, there has been discontent among local government staff and civil servants.
Devon County Council issued a warning on October 27 of at least 500 job losses. This followed Birmingham City Council’s announcement that 800 posts would be axed in a move aimed at reducing a projected £26m budget deficit.
John Hart, leader of Devon council, said: ‘Whoever wins the next general election will have to make severe cuts in public spending. Local government will not escape those cuts and we have to be ready for them when they come.’
Elsewhere, unions have declared a dispute with Nottinghamshire County Council after it floated plans to cut terms and conditions – including redundancy pay – as part of a bid to save £83m over the next three years.
A series of disputes over new pay and grading structures continued in some local authorities, with Leeds refuse workers now in their eighth week of a strike. Union members in Sheffield and Brighton were balloting for action in similar disputes.
In the civil service, 850 members of the Public and Commercial Services union employed by contractor Fujitsu were set to hear the results of a strike ballot over job, pay and pension cuts on October 29. The staff provide IT support to government agencies.
UK Border Agency staff were also balloting for action, while the union has condemned plans to close offices and cut jobs at the Land Registry and Identity and Passport Service.
Unison head of local government Heather Wakefield told Public Finance that redundancies in councils ‘have obviously accelerated’. The union had tracked around 9,000 job losses over the past nine months, Wakefield said, branding it ‘nonsense’ to suggest the public sector was not already ‘sharing the pain’ of the recession.
A PCS spokesman said: ‘We’re very aware of the chancellor’s ongoing Operational Efficiency Review, which we expect he will report on in the PBR. Things are going to get worse and tougher.’
Unions representing 1.5 million council workers submitted a pay claim on October 26, seeking a 2.5% or £500 rise. Wakefield said this was ‘modest and takes account of the tough economic climate’.
But Sir Steve Bullock, chair of the Local Government Association Human Resources Panel, signalled a potential new area of conflict ahead, calling for pay restraint. ‘Now is not the time to be even thinking about an inflation-busting pay claim,’ he said.
