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Union's fury at 'kamikaze-style' plans

Nipsa assistant general secretary Bumper Graham Expand

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Nipsa assistant general secretary Bumper Graham

Nipsa assistant general secretary Bumper Graham

Nipsa assistant general secretary Bumper Graham

By Claire Williamson

A trade union has vowed to fight Stormont's plans to slash thousands of public sector jobs to help make savings in its budget.

First Minister Peter Robinson thinks such a voluntary scheme would save £160m a year.

The Executive has been accused by trade union Nipsa of having a "kamikaze-style economic approach".

Nipsa's assistant general secretary Bumper Graham claimed it was a "totally ridiculous proposition from the First Minister and the Executive."

He said: "This total of £160m a year means 5,300 jobs lost, so in one fell swoop you would have added 10% on to the dole queues of Northern Ireland.

"The other aspect of this is he is saying that these job losses should be found from across our job services, so how he is going to ensure that it won't affect service delivery.

"What will he do if a lot of doctors, teachers, nurses apply for voluntary redundancy – is he really going to let those people go?"

The Belfast Telegraph understands that under the terms of the loan agreed from the Treasury that the details of redundancy scheme could be finalised by the end of the month.

Mr Graham said this could not be achieved.

He said: "The Executive can't write away pre-existing employment laws such as redundancy legislation.

"There are different redundancy schemes across public service, so are they talking about applying some new scheme that there has been no discussions about, or applying an existing schemes which are people's rights under their existing terms and conditions."

He added: "It cannot be by the end of the month, if politicians think that, then they are on cloud cuckoo land, because there has to be negotiations with the trade unions and it will not be an easy thing to secure.

"It again shows lack of planning, lack of thought and a knee-jerk reaction by a kamikaze-style economic approach to the problems of public expenditure in Northern Ireland."

Mr Graham added: "We will be challenging Peter Robinson and the Executive on this and we will be taking the fight directly to them."

Belfast Telegraph

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