UNISON Scotland has backed up the safety warnings made by the Drinking Water Regulator last week. Indeed the union said the threat to safety had been flagged up over 18 months ago, when Scottish Water announced that 1500 jobs will be cut between 2003 and 2006 to meet financial targets set by the other water regulator, the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland (WIC)..click here for that briefing

This was on top of 1300 jobs that were lost in the previous two years. Dave Watson, UNISON's Scottish Organiser for Utilities said "When these financial targets were set in 2001 UNISON estimated that at least 2000 jobs would be lost cutting the workforce by a third (6000 to 4000). At the time we were accused of exaggerating and scaremongering.

"Now we know that the other regulator recognises the threat to public safety contained in his colleague's financial cuts. The STUC and UNISON made just these points to Parliament's Environment Committee last week.

"The Drinking Water Regulator is right, the impact of these cuts will be significant for both staff and the public. It is impossible to cut the workforce by half without impacting on the provision of clean and wholesome water and the safe and environmentally sustainable disposable of sewage.

"In particular the industry has already lost many of its most experienced staff whose knowledge and skills cannot quickly be replaced. This is especially true if jobs are lost before advanced telemetry monitoring is introduced. The WIC criticised Scottish Water for its handling of 2002's cryptospiridium scare in Glasgow. He was particularly scathing over Scottish Water's ability to put only 10 vans onto the street. With these further cuts Scottish Water will be lucky to find a handful of staff who are able to respond to emergencies or more importantly have the experience to prevent problems occurring."

UNISON says that the WIC's financial targets are based on economic theory, not realities on the ground. Comparisons with England are meaningless because that country has benefited from 25 years of additional investment and had their debt written off at privatisation.

Over the past 13 years £50bn has been invested in water and sewage infrastructure in England and Wales. The equivalent figure in Scotland is £1bn. Scotland has a crumbling system that is only now being addressed with a £1.8bn investment programme. That programme will result in facilities that require less staff (although not half) - but they are not in place now.

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