Council Jobs, Services and Terms and Conditions are under Attack!
Southend Council pretend to the media that they have ‘saved’ some public services. This is nonsense – they were the ones who threatened services including libraries and children’s centres in the first place! It was the reaction of the public to the proposals that made them do a U-Turn. That’s welcome, but in reality other jobs and services are still under threat and they are coming for our basic terms and conditions.
Jobs and Services
The Council propose to axe up to 80 posts in total. These include amongst others ICT, Adult Social Care Operations and Commissioning and the complete closure of the award-winning community Dementia service.
Terms and Conditions
On top of these attacks, they are now planning to come for some of our basic terms and conditions, which affect every one of us.
- Sick pay: slashed from 6 months full pay and 6 months’ half pay down to 3 month’s full and 3 months half.
- Redundancy pay: cut to the legal minimum (a loss of around 50%)
- Pay protection: cut from 3 years to 1 year
This is the end result of years of austerity by national government. Council funding has been slashed and now they are turning on us.
The Council know that more people will be sick as a result of increased pressure and fewer staff to get the work done. They know they will need to make jobs redundant as funding falls. They know staff will be downgraded as they carry out sweeping restructures. They want it all on the cheap.
Carry on working harder – but with less benefits!
The Council’s wholly-owned ‘companies’ like Southend Care and South Essex Homes already employ new staff on worse pay and conditions – they aren’t even in the Local Government Pension Scheme. This is what they want for all of us.
These proposals represent a major attack on some of the areas where council jobs are still better than the private sector – and it is just the thin end of the wedge. This is the start of the ‘race to the bottom’ – a long term trend to only pay the bare legal minimum.
If we put up with this they will come for more – perhaps breaking with national pay rises and the pension scheme.
It seems there is money for ‘transformation’ and consultants or for expensive agency workers but not for jobs that actually deliver services.
We have already seen years of a squeeze on jobs and of worsening services. We can’t let them get away with this. We did not cause these problems and we should not pay the price. The Council should be standing up to the government, not making us pay.
What you can do
At the moment, nothing is set in stone. These proposals can be stopped. We cannot afford to roll over at the first threat. The proposed cuts to jobs and to our basic terms and conditions must be challenged. We have the collective strength to stop this going ahead.
We need to hear your views on these cuts and how they will affect you.
- UNISON has negotiated official time off for all members to join one of our members’ meetings and discuss the issues and plan action:
- In-person: Thursday 25th January, 4pm, Committee Room 6, Civic Centre
- Teams: Friday 26th January, 9:30am. Teams link here
- Tell your manager which meeting you will be attending. If you have any problems getting released let the UNISON office know.
- If you or your colleagues are not in a union join UNISON now: https://join.unison.org.uk
- Let us know how you are being affected by cuts and restructures: email unison@southend.gov.uk
We deserve better. Let’s hold this council and the government to account – don’t let them make us pay with our jobs, services and our terms and conditions.