Another broken Labour promise by Southampton's new Council Administration as a hit list of 240 jobs is revealed, ahead of the draft city budget announcement next month.
Labour went into the local elections in May saying there would be no council job cuts as a result of their new staff redeployment model based on one adopted in Sunderland. They renamed this approach the Solent model and described it as their plan B for the council. The scheme would have seen the staff redeployment period extended to 12 months. Immediately after the election this was watered down to 8 months and today the final scheme will be agreed by the Labour Cabinet - just 4 months. At the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Management panel meeting on Thursday Labour admitted that they hadn't researched the policy properly and upon taking control of the council they realised that it was totally unaffordable. They also admitted that the policy was only intended to last one year to get them through the election period and was then due to be scrapped anyway.
However the biggest bombshell was revealed at Full Council on Wednesday and then clarified at the Overview and Scrutiny panel meeting the day after. Labour has been working on a secret hit list of staff who will be axed - all council staff on fixed, short term temporary contracts. The list of staff includes over a dozen bin men, library staff, sure start and nursery workers. These staff will receive no redeployment. Labour say that the union bosses have been working hand in glove with them on the issue. Not only is this a betrayal of City Council staff who Labour have misled it is very disrespectful and totally unprofessional for Labour to once again reveal job cuts in public before speaking with those involved. After leaking their summer mini budget to the media, Labour were rightly chastised for having Oaklands Swimming Pool staff first hear about their jobs on the radio. Now Labour have done it again, announcing 240 job cuts in the public meeting of the Full Council, before having the decency to speak with those affected, some of whom have been with the council for up to 7 years.
Labour are proving time again that they cannot be trusted in Southampton and that they were prepared to say anything before the elections in order to win power, but had no intention of keeping their promises once they got in. Will the the local union bosses do anything about it? No of course they won't because they are Labour Party people who represent their own interests and that of the Labour Party - jobs and services are not their priority and once again this is being shown to be true.
Showing posts with label Trade Unions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trade Unions. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Labour/Union Pay Deal Will Cost Jobs and Services
A deal between the union bosses and the new Labour Administration was always going to come fairly quickly once the elections were over. The industrial action was political from the start, with the senior union negotiators all Labour Party people. However the recently announced deal doesn't mark the end of this sordid story. The cost of the deal is £2.8M a year, and this comes on top of the very large budget gap that the council faces in order to balance the books. The previous Conservative administration made terms and condition changes to keep more people in work and to protect the services that residents rely on.
The price of the Labour/Union deal will be lost jobs and services. However we won't know exactly who and what will be axed until November when next year's draft council budget is published.
Labour and the union bosses are keeping that information under wraps until after the council staff are balloted on the pay deal. It is very underhand to present this as good news to staff and ask them to vote on it and then a month later reveal to them exactly what it costs to pay for it in lost jobs and services.
We have already seen the start of Labour's cuts hitting the front line. The pay agreement alone is the equivalent of 10 Oaklands Pool closures.
It’s a deal that favours better paid staff and it is likely that it will be lower paid staff that bear the brunt of the job cuts.
Under the Conservative Council those earning less than £17,500pa (40% of staff) received a pay rise. The Conservatives were offering to protect those on £22,000pa and under from pay cuts and restore previous pay cuts, backdating them until last summer. It is ironic that the vast majority of bin men would have been better off under that arrangement, by about £600 compared with Labour/Union deal. Labour and unions were happy to use bin men for their own means during the strike but have secured them a worse deal.
This new deal will also be cold comfort to those staff which the union leaders managed to convince were due thousands and thousands of pounds if they took the council to court.
The tragic outcome of this long political campaign will be felt not only by staff themselves when Labour announce their extra job losses but by the residents of the city who will see more of their services axed.
The price of the Labour/Union deal will be lost jobs and services. However we won't know exactly who and what will be axed until November when next year's draft council budget is published.
Labour and the union bosses are keeping that information under wraps until after the council staff are balloted on the pay deal. It is very underhand to present this as good news to staff and ask them to vote on it and then a month later reveal to them exactly what it costs to pay for it in lost jobs and services.
We have already seen the start of Labour's cuts hitting the front line. The pay agreement alone is the equivalent of 10 Oaklands Pool closures.
It’s a deal that favours better paid staff and it is likely that it will be lower paid staff that bear the brunt of the job cuts.
Under the Conservative Council those earning less than £17,500pa (40% of staff) received a pay rise. The Conservatives were offering to protect those on £22,000pa and under from pay cuts and restore previous pay cuts, backdating them until last summer. It is ironic that the vast majority of bin men would have been better off under that arrangement, by about £600 compared with Labour/Union deal. Labour and unions were happy to use bin men for their own means during the strike but have secured them a worse deal.
This new deal will also be cold comfort to those staff which the union leaders managed to convince were due thousands and thousands of pounds if they took the council to court.
The tragic outcome of this long political campaign will be felt not only by staff themselves when Labour announce their extra job losses but by the residents of the city who will see more of their services axed.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Massive Expansion of Nursery Provision Planned for Southampton
The trade unions in Southampton are deliberately misleading and trying to frighten local residents ahead of the local elections on 3rd May. Unions have flooded the city with bill boards suggesting that nurseries are under threat. These bill boards have only been put up in Southampton, Birmingham and London and are part of the union campaign to unseat the current Conservative Council locally and buy an election victory for the Labour Party.
In Southampton nursery provision is NOT under threat and is in fact due to expand dramatically in the coming years to meet the demand resulting from the rising local birth rate and to provide extra support for 2 year olds from disadvantaged families.
Local Conservatives are pledging to create an extra 1,800 nursery places for 2 year olds by 2014 and have pledged to protect all 14 local Sure Start Centres.
We continue to work actively to sustain existing, good quality childcare and assist nurseries to expand, where appropriate to meet this demand, including the nurseries directly managed by the Council.
In the Conservative February Council budget we made revenue provision for expanding places for 2 year olds for 2012/13 and the city received a capital grant from the Department of Education of £3.9M recently which may be used to support the provision of additional places.
The unions should be ashamed of themselves for these despicable tactics. The Conservatives are massively expanding nursery provision in the city and so for the unions to suggest that nurseries are under threat is totally false. They are needlessly worrying local families for their own political ends. Their strikes last year disrupted our bin collections and caused misery for local residents and now they are playing politics with vital services to young children and families.
In Southampton nursery provision is NOT under threat and is in fact due to expand dramatically in the coming years to meet the demand resulting from the rising local birth rate and to provide extra support for 2 year olds from disadvantaged families.
Local Conservatives are pledging to create an extra 1,800 nursery places for 2 year olds by 2014 and have pledged to protect all 14 local Sure Start Centres.
We continue to work actively to sustain existing, good quality childcare and assist nurseries to expand, where appropriate to meet this demand, including the nurseries directly managed by the Council.
In the Conservative February Council budget we made revenue provision for expanding places for 2 year olds for 2012/13 and the city received a capital grant from the Department of Education of £3.9M recently which may be used to support the provision of additional places.
The unions should be ashamed of themselves for these despicable tactics. The Conservatives are massively expanding nursery provision in the city and so for the unions to suggest that nurseries are under threat is totally false. They are needlessly worrying local families for their own political ends. Their strikes last year disrupted our bin collections and caused misery for local residents and now they are playing politics with vital services to young children and families.
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