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Impact of job losses
• OFFICE of the Public Guardian (OPG) chief executive Martin John blusters that 500 jobs won’t be lost at Archway Tower, but in negotiations has provided no evidence to the contrary (Letters, March 27). In an attempt to contrive that the job losses really won’t be noticed and that there will be no discernible impact on the community, Mr John says jobs will be “relocated” over a long period of time. The Ministry of Justice’s press office, however, contradicts this, stating that the majority of the “business” will be located outside London within the next three years. To facilitate this, an office is to be opened soon in Birmingham and another in Nottingham later this year, with three others in the pipeline.
The proposals are contained in the Labour government-commissioned Sir Michael Lyons’ Report of 2004, the whole purpose of which is to shift thousands of civil service jobs out of London.
Since the report’s publication, the Ministry of Justice has gradually been reducing office space available for those delivering front-line services to the public in London, while at the same time wasting millions on a new private finance initiative building in Victoria to house senior civil servants.
The expectation was that in a time of free trade and deregulation, London would be able to shoulder the impact of public sector job losses, with the private sector filling the gap. The recession demonstrates the weakness of this assumption.
The impact on OPG service users – the mentally vulnerable, charities, professional receivers and the judiciary – will be significant. Services for the mentally vulnerable will not improve if fragmented into five offices outside London, particularly when the majority of service users are from London and the South-East. In addition, the livelihoods of local traders, shops, cafés and other lunchtime food venue workers will all be at risk
The responsibilities and duties of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, principle 4, are, according to section 1(5), “An act done, or decision made, under this Act for or on behalf of a person who lacks capacity must be done, or made, in his best interests.” The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) believes the fragmentation, relocation and reduction in civic service jobs resulting in the loss of 500 jobs in Archway is in breach of this principle.
The Lyons Report is not only outdated but will devastate communities like Archway across London. Its conclusions should be reconsidered, particularly in the light of current economic conditions, with those delivering and in receipt of services, along with the communities where services are currently delivered, being properly consulted.
AUSTIN HARNEY
PCS assistant branch secretary
Office of the Public Guardian
Archway Tower, N19
• IT is great there is support and solidarity for trade union PCS’s efforts to keep our jobs in Archway, but I have to be a bit wary that Mike Gilgunn and Gary Heather’s letter could be construed as jumping on the bandwagon (Vice-chancellor’s legacy: a university in cash crisis, March 27).
Their proposition of “joint action” is welcome but reckless since the two examples of threatened job losses they refer to are so different. Also, no discussion has taken place among PCS members on this and they may have given false hope to London Metropolitan University workers threatened with job losses. PCS members will certainly want to extend solidarity to those workers, but unfortunately the 1970s are long gone.
I’m sure it has little to do with the fact that Mick and Gary are prominent Islington Labour Party members, but it is odd that, while correctly pointing out that the university job cuts are about practices at a high management level, they fail to mention who is responsible for the Archway Tower plans.
The threat to our jobs comes from the Labour government’s Lyons Report of five years ago that is intent on moving civil service jobs outside London and what looks like a deliberate attempt to damage the working-class communities where our jobs are based.
In today’s climate, the loss of 500 jobs in Archway would have a devastating effect on the community, where I’m also a resident. It would mean 500 fewer people buying lunch locally or shopping here on the way home and would likely mean loss of shops, other jobs and services. We need the Labour government to scrap the Lyons Report.
NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED
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