‘Outrage’ at Manchester council cuts
By politics.co.uk staff
Losing around 2,000 council staff because of budget cuts could result in strikes, a union has warned.
Unite is considering balloting staff over the plans, as Manchester city council looks to reduce its workforce by around 17%.
Leader Richard Leese said savings worth around £110 million had to be identified next year, over twice more than had been anticipated.
“The accelerated cuts mean we can no longer achieve the staffing reductions we have been forced into through natural turnover which is why we are proposing a time-limited offer of voluntary severance and voluntary early retirement,” he said.
“At the same time we will continue to invest through our M People employee programme to improve the skills and the productivity of the majority of our staff who will stay with us.”
Voluntary redundancy or retirement for those aged over 55 are being requested of every member of staff.
Unite warned that bin collections, children and youth services, schools and the care of old people would all be hit by the “savage” cuts.
“This is the clear result the coalition’s austerity measures and cutbacks to local government funding announced before Christmas,” regional officer Keith Hutson said.
“It will have a devastating effect on services and the people that use them.”
Manchester city council will make final decisions on its budget at a meeting on March 9th.
