Workforce reductions You will be aware from recent media reports that consideration is being given by the NI Executive to significant reductions in the number of staff employed across the public sector in Northern Ireland in response to the financial crisis caused by the Westminster Government’s austerity policies which has resulted in around £4bn in real terms being removed from the Northern Ireland Block Grant. The 4-year public spending allocation decided by the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat coalition government after the 2010 UK General Election represented a devastating blow to public services and as a result of the back-loading of these cuts in Northern Ireland their full impact is now painfully clear. The First Minister, Peter Robinson, in a statement last week, indicated that £160m could be saved annually if a voluntary exit scheme for staff across the whole of the public service was introduced. While there is no detail about how such a scheme would operate NIPSA estimates that such a scheme, based on a £160m saving could result in a loss of over 6,000 jobs in the public sector. The level of the job reductions would depend to a large extent on the salaries of staff who are released under the voluntary exit scheme. NIPSA is opposed to any reductions in public sector jobs. The services that public servants deliver are labour intensive and the quality and the range of these services to the public will be severely compromised if thousands of public sector jobs are destroyed by the NI Executive. The scale of the reductions being considered would also have a major detrimental impact on the local economy and would greatly impact upon opportunities for our young people as they leave school and college. Already the Department of Finance and Personnel has been in touch with NIPSA to advise that it would be drawing up proposals for implementing a workforce reduction plan. It is our understanding that other central Government Departments, which sponsor Non Departmental Public Bodies such as Health and Education, indeed all public bodies will be tasked with drawing up similar plans. However the coverage of any Voluntary Exit schemes will depend on the detail of the budget allocations for 2015/2016. Some public bodies could be impacted more seriously than others and NIPSA will be engaging with both NI Civil Service Departments and all public bodies to establish the likely impact on jobs in each area of the public sector. At the time the 4-year public sector financial settlement was set in 2010 NIPSA highlighted its view that the public expenditure cuts arising from this would result in the loss of thousands of jobs. Since 2010 around 6,000 public sector jobs in Northern Ireland have already been cut and with this new attack on public sector employment our concerns and predictions have been shown to be accurate. In 2010 when the public expenditure cuts were announced the First and Deputy First Minister expressed the strong view that these cuts would severely damage Northern Ireland. The First Minister also commented at that time that the size of the public sector in Northern Ireland partially cushioned Northern Ireland from the economic recession. NIPSA believes that the NI Executive must defend these public sector jobs and if, as they claimed in 2010, that the public expenditure settlement was bad for Northern Ireland then they need a plan of action to challenge the austerity cuts of the Westminster Tory/Lib Dem coalition government. NIPSA will be doing its utmost to oppose these job cuts and we are conscious of the fact that if these reductions of staffing are implemented staff remaining will be expected to continue to deliver high level quality public services and that in turn staff will come under severe pressure in their working lives. It is important that the terms of this bulletin are communicated to all members and branches should also take the opportunity to engage with non- members in order to convince them of the importance of being a NIPSA member. It is only with strong trade union organisation that the interests of all staff employed in the public sector can be protected. BRIAN CAMPFIELD General Secretary
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 09:48:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015