UNISON’s Edinburgh branch is warning that cuts to the council’s Private Rented Service Team could threaten safer housing for private tenants and lose the council hundreds of thousands in income. Continue reading Union concerns for tenants’ safety as service faces cuts
Edinburgh Greens propose small council tax rise to improve council services and combat cuts
Green councillors in Edinburgh are proposing a small council tax rise to raise £10m to invest in services. They believe that combatting cuts in schools, social care and vulnerable children services should be the capital’s priority.
Green councillors in Edinburgh are proposing a 4.3% council tax rise for next year: equivalent to an extra 97p a week for the average Band D property.
The council tax rise, which is backed by 63% of respondents to the council’s budget consultation, would still leave the council having to make significant efficiencies and savings, but, according to the Greens, it would head off the worst cuts.
The £10m package includes
– Retaining a properly-funded school music service
– Blocking cuts to special schools and disadvantaged children
– Keeping budgets for social care for frail older people
– Supporting community centres, libraries and leisure centres.
The additional money would also allow the Council to recruit and keep more care workers to bridge a gap of 5,000 unmet care hours a week. And it would see a substantial investment in long term repair and maintenance of schools.
The proposals are outlined in a blog published today by Green Finance spokesperson Councillor Gavin Corbett, ahead of the council budget meeting this Thursday (21 January).
Cllr Corbett said: “This year’s budget round is by far the toughest since devolution in 1999, with the city council looking down the barrel of £85m worth of cuts. That includes cuts to schools, libraries, swimming pools, social care and community centres.
“That is why almost two-thirds of people responding to the council’s budget consultation backed a council tax rise. I agree with them and I am proposing 97p extra a week to reverse all of the worst cuts and also help tackle to mounting crisis in social care.
“So I believe the city council owes to it to the people of Edinburgh to have a proper grown-up debate about the right balance between new income and spending. To shrink away from that debate, to meekly accept whatever cuts central governments dole out is to infantilise the capital city, to impoverish vital services and to simply store up yet greater problems for the future.
“Let’s have that grown-up debate.”
Edinburgh currently has five Green councillors on a council that is dominated by Labour (21) and the SNP (17) so it would be a major surprise (i.e. there’s next to no chance) if the Green proposals were to be adopted.
When city councillors set Edinburgh’s budget on Thursday it’s expected that the Labour-SNP Capital Coalition will vote through budget cuts of £85 million. Up to 2000 jobs will be lost in what public services trade union Unison describes as ‘the worst cuts in living memory’.
You can find the Edinburgh Greens blog on the budget at
http://www.edinburghgreens.
‘Our mandate from our members remains. Industrial action remains a real possibility in the event of compulsory redundancies.’ – UNISON lead negotiator Tom Connolly
UNISON has postponed its lobby of Edinburgh Council’s Finance and Resources Committee tomorrow following assurances from senior councillors that privatisation plans will be dropped and redundancies delayed for further talks.
Amanda Kerr, Edinburgh UNISON branch secretary, said: “Following concerted UNISON pressure, we welcome this re-think and the dropping of privatisation plans. We also welcome the delay on redundancies, however we still have a long way to go and we will be building for a lobby of the next Finance and Resources Committee on 29 October.
“Our campaign has brought this to the public eye and that campaign will continue. We warned that the level of cuts envisaged would be devastating for services. After years and years of cut after cut, no council can sustain even more massive cuts.”
Lead negotiator Tom Connolly added: “This is an important victory. The damage privatisation would have caused cannot be overestimated. The union will focus on protecting jobs and conditions, engaging with our members and building towards the lobby on 29 October. Our mandate from our members remains. Industrial action remains a real possibility in the event of compulsory redundancies.”
Last week, UNISON warned that up to 3000 jobs could be lost as the council aims to balance it’s books, and councillors are set to consider a number of key proposals to address a £126m budget shortfall over the next four years at tomorrow’s meeting.
Councillor Alasdair Rankin, Finance Convener, said: “We are very clear about the scale of the financial challenge that the Council is facing. The Council is experiencing greater demand for services than ever before, with a growing population in Edinburgh and increasing numbers of older people and younger people, while our overall budget remains the same.
“We need to take action in order to achieve the necessary savings to meet this demand, and we are making every effort to do this in a way that will safeguard frontline services for the people of Edinburgh.
“We want to invest in the services that are important to the public but must also look to rationalise our spending where appropriate. We recognise that some of these proposals may involve tough decisions, including a reduction in Council jobs, particularly in middle management. But while this won’t to be easy, savings will allow us to prioritise the things that matter most to people.
“Our aim, as ever, is to improve and enhance the city for residents, and this package of measures is the next step to achieving this. Councillors will consider these proposals and we are looking forward to the discussions. ”
UNISON says one on six council jobs could go
Trade Union UNISON fears that over 3,000 jobs – one in every six Edinburgh council staff and three times as many jobs as first thought – will be slashed as the effects of accelerated budget cuts become clear, putting the council’s and the Scottish Government’s no compulsory redundancy pledge at risk.
The union has also re-launched its ‘Our City’s Not For Sale’ campaign as reports drawn up by officials put privatisation back on the agenda three years after councillors rejected mass privatisation plans.
“The effect of cuts on services and staff will be devastating as at least 15% of council employees could face being forced out of their jobs”, warned Amanda Kerr, UNISON Edinburgh City branch secretary. “Losing this amount of staff will decimate the services we provide and the public rely on to the point where they would be unrecognisable.
“It is now time for the politicians to stand up for the pledges they were elected on and support UNISON in the fight to save public services in Edinburgh for future generations.”
Lead Edinburgh UNISON negotiator Tom Connolly warned of the effect on services: “Every job lost is a service lost, a school closed, a care home closed, young and old put at risk. UNISON will defend these services and any compulsory redundancies will trigger our longstanding policy to ballot members on action.”
UNISON is calling for meaningful consultation and will demand that the council honours its no compulsory redundancy pledge and its ‘presumption’ against privatisation.
“If there is the political will to save Edinburgh’s services from these vicious government cuts, then councillors need to make sure that officials fully understand that”, said branch president John Stevenson, calling again on the Scottish Government to step in with emergency money to save services while they look at a fairer funding system.
“There has been a deafening silence on the massive cuts local councils have faced with 40,000 jobs lost in the last few years. The government needs to face up to the crisis and make funding available before services disappear for ever.”
UNISON will lobby the Council’s Finance and Resources Committee next Thursday (24 September).
For further information visit http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/citynotforsale/
Westminster Government introduces fees for employment tribunals
Bringing a claim or an appeal to the employment tribunal is currently free of charge with the full cost being met by the taxpayer, but the government has now introduced fees, claiming that by doing this people using employment tribunals will meet ‘a significant proportion’ of the £84m cost of running the system. Their aim, they say, is to reduce the taxpayer subsidy of these tribunals by transferring some of the cost to those who use the service, while protecting access to justice for all.
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) – a taxpayer-funded service to help workers and businesses settle disputes without the need to go to a tribunal – will remain free, but if agreement cannot be reached at that stage and the claim is taken further significant costs will now be incurred.
Workers will have to pay £160 or £250 to lodge a claim and a charge of either £230 or £950 if their case goes ahead.
Minister Jonathan Djanogly said: “It’s not fair on the taxpayer to foot the entire £84m bill for people to escalate workplace disputes to a tribunal. We want people, where they can, to pay a fair contribution for the system they are using, which will encourage them to look for alternatives.
“It is in everyone’s interest to avoid drawn out disputes which emotionally damage workers and financially damage businesses. That’s why we are encouraging quicker, simpler and cheaper alternatives like mediation.”
Critics of the charges argue that the new charges will dissuade many employees from making legitimate claims about workplace discrimination and there is concern that, once again, it is the poorest and most vulnerable that will suffer.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “It is vital that working people have fair access to justice, but introducing fees for tribunals will deter many – particularly those on low wages – from taking valid claims to court. Many of the UK’s most vulnerable workers will simply be priced out of justice.
“The government’s remission scheme to protect low-paid employees is woefully inadequate, and workers will be more likely to be mistreated at work as rogue bosses will be able to flout the law without fear of sanction.”
Responding to a consultation on the controversial proposals, Citizens Advice Scotland’s Kevin Dryburgh said: “Employment tribunals are an essential service for all workers and employers in the UK. It is not just successful claimants who benefit – all employers and workers benefit from a service that protects workers, discourages rogue and exploitative employers, and ensures a level playing field for good employers.
“Far from being a costly burden on employers and tax payers, employment tribunals play a key role for all those in work. Placing barriers to accessing Employment Tribunals will affect the effectiveness of the service in providing this role.”
Trade union UNISON is fighting the fees and has been given permission to seek a judicial review. The hearing will take place in October.
