By IRNA,
London : Tens of thousands of public sector workers have begun receiving warnings about job losses in the run up to Christmas festive season.
The GMB general trade union said jobs ‘at risk’ letters are being sent by 107 local councils so far, with 87,374 posts under threat due to budget cuts caused by the government’s austerity measures.
“The axe is now falling indiscriminately on people who played no part in causing the deficit but are expected to lose their jobs to pay for it,” said GMB National Secretary for Public Services, Brian Strutton.
“The debt junkies in the banks, hedge funds and private equity houses who caused this recession have been bailed out using £850 billions of taxpayers funds while the government shamefully seeks to pass the blame onto overspending in the public sector,” Strutton said.
The union, which has over 600,000 members working in every part of the economy, said jobs at risk included social workers, school dinner ladies, meals on wheels providers, refuse collectors, home helps, youth workers and other front line council services.
Nearly all local authorities have until March 31 to start making savings and by law have to give staff 90 days’ notice of being made redundant. The final, legal deadline to formally announce job cuts is January 1.
‘Every job lost is a personal tragedy and often a family left despairing for their future. What sort of Christmas is it going to be for the council workers under notice of redundancy?’ Strutton said.
The coalition government has said that it is seeking private sector job creation to offset an estimated 330,000 public sector losses that are expected over the next four years.
Earlier this month the latest jobless figures for the UK showed a 35,000 increase to 2.5 million in the three months to October. The rise in unemployment to 7.9% was said to have been driven almost entirely by public sector job losses.