Edinburgh Council staff will hold a one-day, authority-wide strike next week in protest againts cuts to adults’ and children’s services.
Unison members will strike on 23 August in one-day action designed to coincide with a full council meeting on the budget, after over 70% voted in favour of a walkout.
The union balloted members after it received no assurances that cuts to children’s and adults’ services would not result in redundancies.
The council has already identified £10m in savings from children’s services, including £570,000 from a staffing restructure and £400,000 from freezing out-of-authority accommodation placements, but still faces a projected deficit of almost £4m.
Its health and social care department still faces a projected deficit of £0.9m, having identified cuts of £4.7m, including over £1.3m from a recruitment freeze, over £0.8m from restricting care home placements and over £0.5m from increasing eligibility thresholds for home care.
Edinburgh councillors will be asked to approve further savings at next Thursday’s meeting.
Unison branch secretary George Lee said: “You cannot make cuts of up to £16m without the threat of redundancies among the people delivering those services.”
However, council leader Jenny Dawe said: “This is very disappointing news, especially given that Unison has not chosen to discuss its concerns with us further. The council faces a serious financial situation but we are determined to take the action necessary to address the overspend.”
Related information
Glasgow social care strike ends
Essential information on the social care workforce
Comments are closed.