04/02/2009

UNISON CHIEF WARNS COUNCILS NOT TO

MIMIC ESSEX SELL-OFF PLANS

Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, the UK’s largest public service union, today (4 February), slammed plans by Essex County Council to sell-off all its council services as - “a recipe for disaster and economic chaos”. He warned other councils against going down that route, saying: “This is the first time in the history of Local Government that any council has put all its services out to tender. This is because it is a recipe for economic chaos and service failure. At a time when councils should be doing all they can to support their local communities and economy, the Tories, who run Essex County Council, are washing their hands of their responsibilities and selling off council services and jobs. “Only this week Essex County Council was forced to bring its failing outsourced IT contract back in house, which will no doubt cost local people millions. Instead of learning a salutary lesson from that experiment, Councillors are still recklessly intent on selling off the council. “UNISON will intensify its fight against these plans and the lesson to other councils must be ‘Don’t try this at home’.”