By David Williams
10 June 2010
Unison members might be willing to accept some redundancies in return for less outsourcing and more say over public service reform, according to the union’s head of local government.
Heather Wakefield admitted that her comments might be seen as ‘heresy’ at Unison’s local government conference, set to take place this weekend in Bournemouth.
Speaking this morning at the CIPFA conference in Harrogate, Wakefield told delegates that in-house staff should sit on a par with managers when discussing reforms, as their skills and experience will be valuable as the public sector adapts to reduced resources.
She said such a dialogue could bring about reform without alienating workers, ‘without outsourcing and bringing in so-called outside experience and knowledge – which is often significantly poorer’.
Wakefield said: ‘I want sustainable in-house solutions and I believe that as a trade union we can engage in real discussions at a local level about that as a quid pro quo for redundancies and rationalisation.’
Later in the same session, on rethinking public services, Wakefield said that while each job cut would be a personal tragedy and would hit the state with new welfare costs, she had ‘no doubt that jobs can go’.
Conservative councillor Sean Kelly, efficiency lead at Telford & Wrekin Council in Shropshire, went further. ‘We must begin to delete a vast number of posts that were not necessary in the first place,’ he said.
He claimed such a cull would constitute ‘positive redundancy’ for taxpayers.
However, Nick Walkley, chief executive of Tory-controlled London Borough of Barnet – whose planned reforms have been likened to the approach of budget airlines – disagreed.
‘Positive redundancy is one of those pants phrases we come up with to feel better about ourselves,’ he told the conference.
Walkley also warned that, despite boasts about how well the public sector trains and develops its staff, some employers might not have equipped staff to cope in a tough labour market.
