Union vows to fight city council's plan to 'privatise'

Published on Monday 21 December 2009 09:51

TRADE unions have vowed to fight plans to "privatise" a raft of council services.

The city council has passed proposals to ask private firms to bid to run 17 services, including bin collections, street cleaning and school meals in an effort to save money.

The trade union, Unison, insists it can prove that in every case in-house services would be better.

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John Stevenson, branch president of Unison on the council, said: "We know that the council has financial difficulties and that is why they should be joining us in calling for more funding from the government." Mr Stevenson had called for a report detailing the benefits of services being kept in-house but said it was never completed – although the council has shown what it sees to be the benefits of privatisation.

In a deputation to a meeting of the full council, Unison told councillors that shared services would result in jobs being lost to other councils, while outsourcing and privatising services could cost the city hundreds of jobs.

Today, Mr Stevenson said: "Our concerns are around possible redundancies and the fact that you pay council tax in Edinburgh and it ends in the hands of private companies elsewhere.

"Local services are the engine room of the economy. For every 1 a council worker earns they spend 70p in their local community. In a time of recession, this is exporting jobs and money out of Edinburgh."

The council's proposals will see it enter a "competitive dialogue" process with firms interested in running any of 17 services, from payroll and benefits to school janitors.

Green councillor Maggie Chapman said: "What could be the result of this report is the wholesale privatisation and that is wrong. It didn't work in the 1980s and it won't work now."

Council leader Jenny Dawe said: "Budgets are tight and the outlook for public expenditure looks grim. That has forced us to look at how we deliver public services. This is not privatisation by the back, side or front door."