Date: Thursday 22 October 2015

UNISON response to North Lanarkshire Council job cuts announcement

John Young, UNISON North Lanarkshire Council steward said,  
“This is devastating for everyone living in North Lanarkshire and once again it is the low paid and vulnerable, including children, elderly and disabled people who will be the worst affected.  North Lanarkshire Council are proposiong to cut 10% of the workforce which will cause chaos in our vital public services; £26m will be cut from the local economy; and at least 600 jobs are under threat of privatisation which we will oppose.

UNISON will work with the council to fight every job loss. The Scottish Government has promised no compulsory redundancies and at very least we will expect them to stick to that, so far we have not had any guarantees.

We understand it’s a difficult time and Scottish councils are being hit by the UK Government austerity and the Scottish Government’s council tax freeze. However they can do more to mitigate the impact of these cuts like borrow at record low interest rates, refinance, use reserves, reform taxation, and make better use of pension funds.

UNISON will campaign to end austerity and increase funding from the Scottish Government and fight for all our members who are affected. We will be consulting our members in the next week or so and taking the campaign into communities to discuss the consequences of these cuts on people living in North Lanarkshire.’

ENDS
UNISON is the public services trade union and the biggest trade union in Scotland

UNISON Contacts
Danny Phillips unison communications officer 07944 664 110
John Young at UNISON North Lanarkshire branch 01698 276 291

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