A new report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies confirms that the biggest cull of public sector jobs for at least 50 years will see vulnerable parts of the country suffering staff reductions of up to 40%. The study confirms that the reductions are already hitting hardest those parts of Britain with the weakest economic activity and greatest levels of poverty:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/14/public-sector-jobs-cuts-britain?CMP=twt_gu
'Without addressing the fundamental inequalities in society the enormous efforts of our NHS staff will be like trying to push a giant rock up a hill. No matter how hard they try it comes pressing back down on them' writes UNISON Scottish Convenor and health worker Lilian Macer in a Morning Star article pointing out that policy on housing, employment and education all have an impact on health in Scotland and beyond:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-f01f-The-NHS-alone-cant-solve-health-inequality
The Environment Agency in England, where UNISON organises 3,500 workers, is slashing its staff by 15% in the next year. Over 1,700 jobs will be lost as a result of Government funding cuts. Veerle Heyvaert writing for The Conversation blog warns that the ‘environmental and related economic costs of this scale of layoffs at the Environment Agency should be taken seriously. By themselves they are unlikely to sway a government that, regardless of its claimed green ambition, pursues an agenda of environmental deregulation. Yet there are other significant legal and political costs that may have escaped the government’s attention so far but are significant’
http://theconversation.com/environment-agency-staff-cuts-risks-economy-and-reputation-20584
#cpc13 Or so went the Tory slogan on privatisation of British Gas. But I am referring to an old friend of mine called Sid. A Sid who like thousands of others in the public sector is paid to clean the streets, to clear graffiti. The street cleansing teams up and down the UK are fed up with the way in which their jobs are likened to ‘punishment jobs’. Community service for crimes? Make them clear graffiti. Too lazy to get a real job? Make them clean the streets. But
Osborne’s demeaning approach is far more sinister than just an attack on the unemployed. It is an attack on the very concept that the public sector has a role to play in working for a better environment.
Despite the slowest UK economic recovery for more than a century and overwhelming evidence of the failure of austerity policies, the Tory lie machine has dominated the political narrative, writes David Blanchflower in the New Statesman. He calls for bolder economic policies from Labour - ‘being Osborne-lite won’t work. So many people are hurting and need some hope. Coming up with credible plans to raise real wages, create jobs and reduce youth unemployment looks like the way forward’
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/09/osborne-won-battle-austerity-now-labour-must-look-future
‘Since the early 1980s, living standards for most of the UK’s workforce have becoming progressively detached from growth. The gains from a growing economy became increasingly unevenly divided in favour of a small group at the top, leaving significant sections of the rest of the population (roughly the bottom 60 percent) lagging behind the average rise in prosperity, and at an accelerating rate’ writes Howard Reed. As well explaining the declining wage share Reed proposes a new social contract to...
Australia’s Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) is extending a suspension of its election campaign support of the Labour Party in protest at the federal government's plans to cut another $1.8 billion from public services. CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood said ''To secure the support of public sector workers, Labour needs strong policies that demonstrate how different they are to the Liberals when it comes to public sector jobs and services. We know Tony Abbott will cut 12,000 to 20,000 public sector jobs, but public sector workers expect something different and better from Kevin Rudd. If any other industry announced it was cutting thousands of jobs, there would be a national outcry"
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/public-sector-union-halts-support-for-alp-over-budget-cuts-20130805-2rai8.html
A recent study has confirmed that not only are workers in Britain more insecure at work than at any time in the past 20 years but, for the first time ever, public sector workers are more fearful about losing their jobs than those in the private sector. The 2012 Skills and Employment Survey (which is carried out every six years) is the first since the 2007/8 banking crisis and the consequential onslaught of austerity on public services, the welfare state and workers' rights:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/socsi/ses2012/[hidden]resources/4.%20Fear%20at%20Work%20Minireport.pdf
A new report by economist Dr John Philpot estimates that a further 340.000 public sector jobs will be cut by the time of the next General Election on 7 May 2015. This doomsday scenario is based on Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) projections that almost as many public sector jobs will be cut in the next two years as have already been cut in the three years since 2010. This gives added urgency to union campaigns against austerity measurers and for stronger resistance to job cuts at local level:
http://media.wix.com/ugd//44bcc3_785aa0261e4a9ec8d1a8b9842c5413fa.pdf
Patrick Worrall writes on Channel 4 website what at first glance appears to be a credible, albeit critical, analysis of UNISON's position on jobless numbers. However scratch below the surface and we have yet another example of frankly lazy and silly journalism. The headline says it all ‘what UNISON isn’t telling you about jobs’. Should that line not be ‘what the Government is not telling you about jobs’?
Incoming TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady has put an early marker down against the failing policies of the Con Dem Government: “We were told that short-term pain would deliver long-term gain, yet all we see are nasty side-effects with no sign of a cure. What is worse is that we now seem to be locked into a vicious downward spiral of cuts. They are not working so the government cuts even more. Reducing the living standards of some of the poorest and most vulnerable in society, while attempting to tar them all as scroungers, is perhaps the very definition of a party determined to be seen as nasty.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tuc-chief-frances-ogrady-in-blast-1513040
To deflect outrage from the OBR’s horrendous forecast that 1.1m public sector jobs will be lost by 2018, in his Autumn Statement Chancellor George Osborne repeated the Prime Minister’s claim from September that ‘1.2m new jobs have been created’ in the private sector since the Coalition Government was elected – a claim which doesn’t stand up to examination with the true figure being 874,000:
http://fullfact.org/factchecks/million_private_sector_jobs_PMQs_David_Cameron-28124
Hundreds of clerical and administrative workers employed by Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust in Dewsbury, Pontefract and Wakefield hospitals are today completing a three day strike in opposition to 70 job losses and the threat of pay cuts to many more staff. This follows an initial day of industrial action three weeks ago. Messages of support can be sent to midyorksunison@aol.co.uk.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is calling for a European Day of Action and Solidarity for employment and against austerity on 14 November.
A new and highly informative study by the Work Foundation dissects the structure of public sector employment in 2012. Interestingly, FE and sixth form colleges have been moved out of public sector classification giving the false impression of 200,000 jobs being created in the private sector. Universities and Housing Associations sit outside of the public sector and instead are defined as Non-Profit Institutions. The report looks at the historical experience of cutting public sector employment (during the Thatcher and Major Tory Governments) and doubts whether the UK labour market can absorb the unprecedented cuts in the public sector workforce planned by the Con Dems over the next decade – inevitably leading to higher levels of unemployment and under-employment:
http://www.theworkfoundation.com/DownloadPublication/Report/323_Public%20employment%20final.pdf
The TUC calculates that 3.3 million workers are under-employed in the UK (a figure which has increased by 42% since the 2008 economic crash). Under-employed describes those workers who are doing part-time jobs because full-time ones are not available or who want more hours in their current jobs. The Guardian reports today that 1.2 million people will be affected by loss of state benefits next year when the Universal Credit benefit payment is introduced unless they find an additional job or secure higher wages in their existing job!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/oct/04/million-working-adults-benefits-cuts
http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-21363-f0.cfm
