STUC demands cash for public services

(Wednesday 22 April 2009)

by Malcolm Burns in Perth

THE Scottish TUC passed a series of resolutions on Tuesday supporting well-funded public services and protecting society's most vulnerable.

Public-sector union UNISON convener Mike Kirby slammed the rush to outsource public services as "a tax scam that abandons democratic control and allows the council to avoid its legal duty to pay men and women equally."

He described Glasgow council's increasing reliance on outsourced trusts and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) to deliver public services. Currently, around 15,000 staff are employed by nine LLPs, trusts and partnerships in Glasgow.

"A recent Glasgow Council report into these arm's-length external organisations‚ or ALEOs, admits that they are a tax scam, that they lead to loss of democratic control by councillors and they can avoid more equal pay claims because they have fewer comparators. So much for the Labour government's public-sector equality duty," he said.

Teaching union EIS delegate David Drever said: "We must not underestimate the political fight we face.

"The papers are speaking about an 'obese' and 'inflated' public sector and the Chancellor is preparing for billions of pounds of 'efficiency savings' in the Budget. But we must not allow public service workers being posed against our colleague the private sector."

Civil Service union PCS delegate Cheryl Gedling added: "We listened carefully to Harriet Harman on Monday when she said that you can't cut your way out of recession.

"Maybe she was just off message, but we think she needs to go knock on the door at 11 Downing Street to let Alistair Darling know what he should do.

"After the previous chancellor announced 104,000 job cuts in 2004, we launched a campaign of industrial action and ensured no compulsory redundancies. If this budget announcement means public-sector cuts, be assured that our union will defend our members' jobs and their terms and conditions."

General union GMB delegate Linda Miller called for action on equal pay in the public sector.

"Low-pay is still a real issue for many women. On average, 27,000 - mainly female - part-time local government workers in Scotland earn less than £6.50 per hour and 14,000 in the NHS earn less than £7 per hour," she said.

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