The wholesale slaughter of public sector jobs

By Dave Prentis, General Secretary of Unison

So we are supposed to punch the air and rejoice that only 330,000 people in the public sector will lose their jobs as a result of the Government’s austerity measures.

Well, excuse me if I don’t. I cannot rejoice that more than one-third of a million public sector workers will lose their jobs to pay off the debt caused by the bankers’ greed and folly.

I cannot rejoice that the poor, the sick and the vulnerable will end up being deprived of vital public services, just at the time when they need them most.

I cannot rejoice that a further one third of a million people working in the private sector will lose their jobs as a result. If public sector workers either lose their jobs or face a pay freeze, they won’t be spending money in local economies. The local shops, bars, restaurants, hairdressers, businesses will suffer and begin to lay off their workers or close down completely.

The Office of Budget Responsibility dropped the headline figure yesterday and the coalition government immediately and shamelessly seized on it to claim that its policies were working. The implication is that 160,000 jobs have been “saved” by transferring the bankers’ debt burden from jobs to welfare benefits.

Let’s be clear: the coalition government has deliberately and knowingly taken measures that will throw hundreds of thousands of people out of work. The OBR also said that growth was sluggish and would slow over the next two years and that unemployment will rise. Not much to rejoice about.

There is an alternative to the wholesale slaughter of public sector jobs, with its damaging knock-on impact on the economy and society. It’s a fairer way that deals with the bankers’ profits and bonuses, tackles the tax evaders, uses progressive taxation, brings in a Robin Hood Tax and invests in the future.

That alternative is struggling to be heard at the moment, with many accepting the inevitability of cuts and job losses. But people are waking up to the impact of the cuts. Students are already taking their cause to the streets. And, soon, the effects of a rise in VAT and national insurance increase for workers will bite.

Before long we will see NHS waiting lists rising, libraries and leisure centres closing, day care centres shutting their doors, meals on wheels and home care becoming a rarity and many other service cuts.

The Labour Party must sharpen up its act to effectively and collectively speak out now as the voice for the majority who are taking the hit. It must build a strong opposition and use the policy review to unite all parts of the party behind fairer, progressive policies that resonate with the public.