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Press Release

145,000 fewer council jobs

6 December 2011

Council workers face an unprecedented triple whammy of job losses, pay freezes and attacks on their pensions says GMB

GMB, the union for local authority workers, commented on the Work in Progress report from the Audit Commission and Local Government Association on job losses and cuts in the pay bills of local councils in England. See notes to Editors for summary.

Brian Strutton, GMB National Secretary for Public Services said “The combination of central government budget cuts and councils' own decisions to keep Council tax down has led to 145,000 job losses in the last year and there will be a further wave next year. Council workers face an unprecedented triple whammy of job losses, pay freezes and attacks on their pensions.

Front line council staff like dinner ladies, social workers, care staff, street cleaners, school staff and bin men are being made to pay the highest price in the economy for a financial mess they did not cause.

It is not possible to deflate the economy to growth and a balanced budget. Thus Government should act urgently to ease the budget cuts on Councils so they can maintain front line services to their communities in these difficult times as well as not adding more to the dole queues. The economics of the corner shop will not get us out of this mess. It did not do so in the 1930s and it won't now either.”



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