Duncan Moore, Devon Socialist Party
The Tory-run Devon County Council has issued ‘fire-and-rehire’ threats to 834 workers, unless they bow down and accept inferior terms and conditions.
Council-employed care staff and environmental health workers currently receive a £450-a-year allowance for using their own car for work purposes. As a cost-saving measure, the council has proposed scrapping it. Meanwhile, the chief executive of the council earns over £200,000 per year!
Staff in GMB and Unison unions voted overwhelmingly to reject these proposals; the council then announced workers must sign the new contracts by 23 March – or face the sack.
It is no surprise that a Tory-run council would attack workers in this disgraceful way, and we hope to see the Tories out at the county election in May (which they tried to cancel).
But Labour is also to blame for this situation facing these workers.
Their much-vaunted Employment Rights Bill promised to end the foul practice of ‘fire and rehire’, which three years ago saw P&O seafarers dragged off their ships to be replaced by non-union agency staff on as little as £4.87 an hour.
But eight months into this Labour government the practice remains legal. There is no mention of banning fire and rehire in Labour’s update to the bill.
Labour government
The Labour government has also scrapped Devon council’s rural services delivery grant, snatching £10 million from essential services such as social care for the elderly and transport for children with learning disabilities to get to school, in a large rural county where the costs are greater.
Of all the parties standing in the county council elections this May, only Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates pledge to oppose all cuts and council tax rises and to mount a campaign to press Starmer’s Labour government to restore the funding lost during austerity.
TUSC opposes the use of these tactics by employers. We will stand with the council workers at their lobby of the council on 12 March; and we will support their picket lines if they strike to defend their rights.
Devon Socialist Party has called a public meeting in Exeter and invites all affected council workers along with other workers in the city to come and discuss how we fight back against these attacks by Tories and Labour; including by campaigning for a new party to fight for our class.
