Manchester City Council to cut 2,000 jobs

Submitted by AWL on 13 January, 2011 - 9:41

Manchester's Labour-run city council plans to axe 2,000 workers as part of £110 million worth of cuts.

The council has been hit hard by Coalition cuts to local government funding, which disproportionately effect working-class areas. The council claims to want to avoid compulsory redundancies, but all staff are being asked to consider taking voluntary redundancy, with all staff over 55 being asked to consider early retirement.

The cut represents a reduction in the workforce of nearly 20%, which the council claims it "has" to make. Its leader, Labour's Sir Richard Leese, said "the accelerated cuts mean we can no longer achieve the staffing reductions we have been forced into through natural turnover which is why we are proposing a time-limited offer of voluntary severance and voluntary early retirement."

Blaming the central government funding cuts is an easy get-out for Labour council chiefs. They can indulge in anti-cuts posturing while not having to lift a finger to actually resist the implementation of cuts. Unions representing council workers, principally Unison and GMB, should use their affiliation to the Labour Party to force Labour councillors to refuse to pass on cuts.

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