1,000 temporary council staff will lose jobs, says Siptu

LOCAL AUTHORITIES around the country are in the process of letting go over 1,000 staff on temporary contracts, Siptu has said.

The union, which represents general and outdoor workers as well as professional-grade staff, has said services provided by local authorities will suffer because of the cuts.

The cutbacks were initiated in response to a Government decision that local authority payrolls should be reduced by 3 per cent.

Those hit hardest include Donegal County Council, where 238 temporary contracts due to expire in December 2008, 2009 or early 2010 will not be renewed, and Kildare County Council, where 108 people on temporary contracts will become unemployed by the end of 2009.

Maurice Hearne, Siptu local authority professional organiser, said at least 200 of his members, including engineers, planners and other professional grades, were not having their contracts renewed.

He said that among Siptu members in local authorities, it was estimated that at least 1,000 had contracts that would not be renewed.

Overtime was also being cut in local authorities, and permanent posts were not being filled.

He warned that the cuts would have an impact on services.

“There is a body of work that is simply not getting done; you can’t just redistribute it, it is bound to lead to cuts in services.”

He said it was likely that legal obligations in the areas of health and safety, water quality and pollution would be compromised.

The cuts, he said, would jeopardise Government policy and would also leave the State open to significant fines from the EU.

Some of the contracts not being renewed were with people who had been working for three years and would be challenged by the union. People were very worried and concerned, Mr Hearne said.

“Eighteen months ago an engineer or planner could expect to pick up work on higher pay in the private sector,” he said.

“Those not having their contracts renewed today have nowhere to go.”

Meanwhile, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council is to lay off 20 of its staff. The job losses were negotiated with Siptu last November as part of a package to rationalise waste-management services.

The council sought to lay off 20 bin men, but agreed to redeploy them and accept the 20 redundancies from general staff.

Some 41 people applied to be made redundant. The council is selecting 20 from among the applications, a spokesman said.

He said there was no connection between the redundancies and the 3 per cent payroll cut, which he said had been achieved by other means.

Staff on temporary contracts in Dún Laoghaire were not currently under threat, he added.