By David Williams
17 June 2010
Public sector union bosses are rallying members to resist cuts to jobs and services – but experts are predicting that negotiations will prove more pragmatic behind closed doors.
Speaking at Unison’s annual conference on June 15, general secretary Dave Prentis warned that the government ‘wouldn’t know what hit them’ if they pressed ahead with cuts. He also threatened strike action over pensions.
Local government head Heather Wakefield told the meeting that members faced ‘the fight of [their] lives’ over coming years.
But industrial relations experts suggest that, away from the union conferences, employers and workers are looking for more workable deals.
On June 10, at the CIPFA conference in Harrogate, Wakefield expressed her anger that local government was being targeted.
She added: ‘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.’
She emphasised that each redundancy was a personal tragedy that increased welfare costs for the state, but said that she had ‘no doubt that jobs can go’.
Duncan Brown, director of reward services at the Institute for Employment Studies, told Public Finance it was unusual for a union leader to take such a pragmatic stance in public. But, he said, these kinds of negotiations were taking place in both central government departments and local authorities.
‘It’s a recognition of the reality of the situation,’ Brown said. ‘Thinking more creatively and working in partnership, rather than sticking dogmatically to traditional stances, has got to be a good thing… I would have thought we’ll see a lot more of it.’
Stephen Overell, associate director of the Work Foundation, added: ‘I suspect there’s a lively discussion going on in the trade union movement at the moment.
‘There are probably a lot of people who will realise it is not a sustainable position to say, “we oppose all redundancies”… They’re trying to be creative and see if they can extract some kind of deal that could benefit their members quite substantially.’
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics on June 16 showed that the number of people working in the public sector fell by 7,000 to 6.09 million in the first quarter of 2010.
17 June 2010
Public sector union bosses are rallying members to resist cuts to jobs and services – but experts are predicting that negotiations will prove more pragmatic behind closed doors.
Speaking at Unison’s annual conference on June 15, general secretary Dave Prentis warned that the government ‘wouldn’t know what hit them’ if they pressed ahead with cuts. He also threatened strike action over pensions.
Local government head Heather Wakefield told the meeting that members faced ‘the fight of [their] lives’ over coming years.
But industrial relations experts suggest that, away from the union conferences, employers and workers are looking for more workable deals.
On June 10, at the CIPFA conference in Harrogate, Wakefield expressed her anger that local government was being targeted.
She added: ‘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.’
She emphasised that each redundancy was a personal tragedy that increased welfare costs for the state, but said that she had ‘no doubt that jobs can go’.
Duncan Brown, director of reward services at the Institute for Employment Studies, told Public Finance it was unusual for a union leader to take such a pragmatic stance in public. But, he said, these kinds of negotiations were taking place in both central government departments and local authorities.
‘It’s a recognition of the reality of the situation,’ Brown said. ‘Thinking more creatively and working in partnership, rather than sticking dogmatically to traditional stances, has got to be a good thing… I would have thought we’ll see a lot more of it.’
Stephen Overell, associate director of the Work Foundation, added: ‘I suspect there’s a lively discussion going on in the trade union movement at the moment.
‘There are probably a lot of people who will realise it is not a sustainable position to say, “we oppose all redundancies”… They’re trying to be creative and see if they can extract some kind of deal that could benefit their members quite substantially.’
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics on June 16 showed that the number of people working in the public sector fell by 7,000 to 6.09 million in the first quarter of 2010.
