UNISON City of Edinburgh opposes the planned £76 million of further cuts to services that will impact on all sectors of our communities.
Hundreds of millions of pounds have been cut from the council budget throughout the years of austerity. As a result of the cuts the most vulnerable in our society are put at greater levels of risk and can slip through the net.
From the cradle to the grave the services provided by council workers and our colleagues in the community and voluntary sector continue to be asked to do more with less.
Exhausted and undervalued staff are leaving jobs across the public sector due to the lack of value placed on them and the services that they provide.
Work related stress and other mental health related illness is a direct result of the unacceptable demands placed on the remaining staff, employers are failing in their health and safety commitments and their duty of care.
Workers continue to see the value of their take home pay decrease year on year due to the below inflation pay awards. The fact that the council have only budgeted for a 3% pay award for the next pay award is an example of how they wish to continue to erode the value of take home pay.
We will be going through each page of the budget cut proposals and calling out the risks that they will cause to our members and our communities.
The Scottish and Westminster governments must invest in local government and enable councils to control their own budgets to truly meet the needs of the public they serve.
The Scottish government must stop treating Edinburgh worse than any other authority and ensure that it receives the finance that is needed to provide meaningful services.
UNISION City of Edinburgh will be holding a demonstration, and making a deputation, to the full council budget meeting on
Thursday 23 February from 8.30am City Chambers 249 High St, Edinburgh Eh1, UK EH1 1YJ
Please join us in solidarity to protect public services and job.