Compulsory redundancy fears as 10,000 Scots council jobs at risk

Published on Monday 24 January 2011 18:23

ALMOST 10,000 council workers are facing the axe in Scotland, according to new figures.

It is feared the situation will only get worse, with many councils still deciding on potential jobs cuts and union leaders now warning they could strike if compulsory redundancies are imposed.

A 90-day statutory consultation period is under way at many councils affected, according to the GMB union, with 9,641 jobs at risk.

GMB Scottish organiser Alex McLuckie said: "For the first time we could be looking at compulsory redundancies in each of these employers - that's why they are giving us the 90-day notice in each of these places."

About 3,000 jobs in Glasgow are under threat, according to the union, along with 1,800 in Fife, 1,000 in Highland and 900 each in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. The figures only relate to councils where the unions fear that compulsory redundancies are on the cards.

"There are another 22 councils out there who have still to make up their minds about what they're doing in terms of job losses," Mr McLuckie added.

"This is a particularly worrying time for council workers that are facing job losses. We will be working to try to reduce the impact of job losses in each of these councils."

GMB policy is currently to oppose compulsory redundancy and if these are imposed, industrial action will be a possibility.

"We would certainly consider consulting our members on some action to try and save jobs," Mr McLuckie added.

A spokesman for local government body Cosla said councils want to protect jobs.

He added: "We are fully committed to this and that is why the two-year pay freeze has been implemented for local government workers in a bid to protect as many jobs as possible."

The job losses are a result of the swingeing cuts in public spending imposed by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government at Westminster in an effort to drive down the UK's 155 billion annual deficit.

Finance secretary John Swinney recently unveiled a raft of cuts in his Budget for next year, including the settlement for councils, after Scotland's Budget was reduced by about 1bn.

He announced the introduction of a pay freeze for public sector workers earning 21,000 a year or more last November in a move that ministers said would save thousands of jobs.

A report by the Budget review group last year warned that public sector employment in Scotland could fall by 50,000 over five years to deal with the impact of the spending squeeze.

The Scottish job losses are among 140,456 posts across the UK under threat of being made redundant at 203 councils and authorities, the GMB figures show. Councils have given notice that they plan to delete vacant posts and seek volunteers for early retirements and redundancy.

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: "Any suggestion that frontline services for the most vulnerable people in our society are not being affected by cuts of this scale is simply nonsense.

"The impact for those who depend on these services will be devastating."