Jobs axe at councils 'reaches more than 170,000'

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Local Government and also in Central Government, Communities

 The GMB union says 171,709 posts are under threat or have already gone at 331 local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland.

It's now calling for the May 5 elections to be a referendum on the Conservative-led coalition government's economic and social policies.

When jobs under threat/already gone at local NHS bodies and other public bodies including, universities, the MOD and the Environment Agency (EA), it claims the total rises to 227,559.

In nearly all of the councils and public bodies, it claims the 90-day statutory consultation period on how to deal with these job losses has been completed.

Most councils, it says, have acheived cuts in posts by deleting vacant posts and accepting volunteers for early retirements and redundancy. In some, it says, there has been some compulsory redundancies. Some of the posts under threat are due to go later in further rounds of cuts up to 2014, the union says.

This table below summaries the total posts under threat/ jobs already gone at 331 local authorities across the UK.

Source: GMB

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary, said: “May 5th elections should be a referendum on the Tory led coalition government's economic and social policies after one year in power.

"Tories and Lib Dems say there is no alternative. The half a million people who marched in London on Saturday 25 know what the alternative is.

"The government's strategy on the economy is wrong, unfair and will not get the country working. Sky high levels of youth unemployment are an absolute scandal and a waste of the nation’s youth. This is particularly so as it is the government itself that is cutting 171,709 local authority jobs and another 49,682 NHS jobs across the country. Public service job cuts known to GMB amount to 227,599 and that is not them all . These are jobs that are not available to the nearly one million young workers who are jobless.

"GMB will urge voters to reject unemployment, poverty and cuts in public services, by voting against Tory and Lib Dem council candidates. We will ask them to support an end to tax evasion by the super-rich and multi national companies and support a financial transaction tax. These two measures alone will raise at least £40 billion. We want voters to support curbs and controls on the excesses of the bankers and the elite, and for measures to grow the economy to get the unemployed back to work and paying taxes."