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Jeremy Corbyn MP with GMB union members outside Islington Town Hall |
‘Upper Street to Coronation Street’ jobs move riles unions
Protest as Town Hall claims it can’t find workers locally to fill office posts
UNION officials at Islington Town Hall threatened industrial action this week over plans to move jobs from “Upper Street to Coronation Street”.
More than 100 people lobbied councillors before a meeting on Thursday when plans were approved to move 69 back-office posts to Ashton-under-Lyne, in Greater Manchester, in a cost-cutting drive.
Vaughan West, from the GMB trade union, has warned that talks about industrial action are taking place.
Lib Dem adult social care chief Councillor John Gilbert told Thursday’s meeting that the jobs move was necessary because no one in Islington was willing to fill the posts while people in Ashton-under-Lyne were prepared to do the job at a cheaper rate.
Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn joined trade unionists at the protest outside the Town Hall. He said: “If we allow any of these jobs to move out of the borough then those jobs go for the future and the rot sets in.
“Anyone working for the council should expect to work in the borough. I fail to see how it’s difficult to fill these jobs. There are plenty of very able people in the borough who can fill these and the public would expect the borough to employ them. Behind this is the asset-stripping of Islington’s buildings.”
Labour group leader Councillor Catherine West told the ruling Lib Dems: “You’re taking jobs away from Upper Street towards Coronation Street, as some people were joking outside the Town Hall. Why are you supporting jobs going up to Manchester when there are kids in the estates going after jobs?”
Her Labour colleague, Councillor Barry Edwards, said: “We can probably take most of the back-office activity and put it 200 miles away but we wouldn’t have all that money circulating in Islington.”
But Cllr Gilbert said: “In an ideal world we wouldn’t be delivering services to Islington from 200 miles away. That may be the world in which the idealists picketing outside live in but it’s cloud cuckoo land.”
More than 30 per cent of the council workforce were not Islington residents, he pointed out. “Some jobs are hard to fill and people who are qualified don’t want to do them so we fill them with agency staff, who are expensive,” Cllr Gilbert said. “But there’s a place 200 miles away where people are willing to work for Islington Council.”
Mr West, for the GMB, said he was still waiting to see the business case justifying the move. “It’s not just about keeping the jobs in Islington,” he said. “People who don’t live in Islington still contribute to the economy. We also know the parking service is effectively operating a vacancy freeze, which we believe is massaging their figures.”
He believed the real reason for the jobs move was to make millions from selling office buildings.
Fifty-nine jobs will be moved at the council’s Contact Islington call centre and the parking service, with 10 posts being transferred at the housing benefit service, which already has 25 employees working in Ashton-under-Lyne.
A council spokeswoman said: “The intention is to avoid any compulsory redundancies. The council will seek to fill vacant posts and those held by temporary staff first and this move would be implemented over a 12-month period to give existing permanent staff who do not wish to relocate the opportunity to apply for similar posts elsewhere in the council.
“During this time, they will be offered priority consideration for any suitable vacant posts in other council departments.” |
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