Council targets rep over privatisation

Conservative-controlled Bromley council is ratcheting up the pressure on opponents of its privatisation programme by suspending a union rep in a bid to silence critics of its privatisation programme, the Unite general union has claimed.

Unite said that “a curtain of secrecy and fear was descending” over the council’s plans to become a commissioning council with a reduction in the number of council employees from 4,000 to 300.

The union said the council had suspended Unite representative Alan Brown on 17 July. And Unite branch secretary Kathy Smith has had her trade union facility time removed. She is now not being invited to trade union liaison meetings that the employer is setting up.

In privatisation initiatives, the council is considering handing 14 libraries over to charities and replacing staff with unpaid volunteers.

The remainder of the parks service was transferred to the Landscape Group, which announced that immediately after the transfer on 1 June, it would be making redundancies. But it’s the council not Landscape that will be footing the bill for the redundancies.

The council has also made the decision to start the process of transferring services for disabled adults to a private company, Certitude, which could lead to more job losses.

www.unitetheunion.org/news/bromley-council-accused-of-targeting-union-reps-in-bid-to-silence-privatisation-critics