Date: Saturday 10 January 2009

Glasgow Community Service Workers Strike

Glasgow Council’s 21 Community Service Supervisors have been on indefinite strike action since 6 January. The workers supervise offenders who have been given community service as an alternative to prison.

They work on their own every day with five offenders undertaking gardening, home decoration, joinery or environmental projects.

The Council want to give them additional duties including assessing work requests from the public (often from those who cannot afford to pay for gardening or decoration services), developing new placements, training offenders, driving council vehicles, placing offenders in appropriate squads, assessing offenders “attitude, development and employability” and a compulsory increase in hours and days worked.

The Council want to pay them Grade 4 for this new job. The job should be Grade 5 under the Council’s grading system. Those workers who will do the same job with offenders who are in individual work placements will be on Grade 5.

The new grade also still leaves many of the 21 workers facing pay cuts of over £1,000 caused by the Council’s 2007 Single Status equal pay review. The workers are being asked to do a more responsible job for less money!

Please highlight this dispute in your workplace and trade union. If you live in Glasgow then please contact your local councillor and ask them to settle this dispute by offering the correct pay grade.

Messages of support and donations to
Glasgow City UNISON,
4 Floor, 18 Albion Street,
Glasgow, G1 1LH
or unisonenquiries@glasgowcityunison.org.uk

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