Date: Wed 28 January 2009

Community Service staff action to escalate

Glasgow Council's 21 Community Service Supervisors, on strike for three weeks over proposals by Glasgow Council to cut their pay, are planning to take their case to the public with demonstrations and to escalate their action.

The supervisors remain on indefinite strike action, but the Council remain intransigent and are still refusing to withdraw the pay cuts the strikers face under "service reform" proposals.

The strikers will be staging a demonstration outside the Sheriff Court from 8.00am tomorrow - Thursday 29 January, and a further lobby of Glasgow Council's Executive Committee meeting on Friday 6 Feb at 12.30pm at in the City Chambers.

Brian Smith, Secretary of UNISON's Social Work Stewards said: "At a time when the eyes of the public and the Parliament are on improving alternatives to prison, you would think that the largest provider of those services in Scotland would be making serious efforts to resolve an indefinite strike. But no, Glasgow Council is sitting on its hands hoping our members will just go away. UNISON is stepping up its support for these strikers and is now considering how to escalate the action into other areas of Glasgow's criminal justice services."

"Our members are in favour of improving the service and have even suggested ways in which the service could be improved further. However the Council must recognise what the job is worth. Some of the workers face pay cuts of over £2,000 under the management's proposals."

ENDS

Note for Editors Community Service Supervisors supervise serious, violent and repeat offenders who have been given community service as an alternative to prison. They work on their own every day with five offenders undertaking gardening, home decoration, joinery or environmental projects.

The Council want to give them additional duties - assessing work requests from the public, developing new placements, training offenders, placing offenders in appropriate squads and assessing offenders "attitude, development and employability" and bring compulsory increase in hours and days worked.

The Council want to pay them Grade 4 for this new job. The job should be Grade 5 under the Council's grading system, and workers doing the same job with offenders in individual work placements will be on Grade 5. The new grade also still leaves many of our members facing pay cuts of over £2,000 caused by the Council's 2007 equal pay review.

The cuts in pay affect all those who currently drive (the majority) and weekend working staff. For example a Supervisor who drives and works every Saturday and Sunday currently earns around £21,000 pa. Council pay offered is £18,500. A wage cut of £2,500 The basic core pay proposed is £16,000, (without the driving monies or weekend enhancements). This is too low and does not reflect the value of the new job under the Council's own job evaluation scheme.

For Further Information Please Contact: Brian Smith (Secretary - Glasgow SW Stewards) 07870 914 361 (m) Mandy McDowall (Regional Officer) 07903 846 427(m) Chris Bartter (Communications Officer) 0771 558 3729(m)

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