Two Thousand Job Cuts have taken place in the Fylde in the Department for Work and Pensions. No wonder it’s so difficult for people to find a job in the Fylde.
BackgroundThe Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have over the past five years been running a campaign to defend jobs and to highlight the economic impact of job cuts on the Fylde. The Government previously announced that there would be 104,000 job cuts in the Civil Service and the DWP was to take a large slice of the cuts.
We warned as to the detrimental impact of the job cuts on the economy of the Fylde area and also on future employment prospects.
We have met with local MPs and the Blackpool Council Leadership to warn of the dire consequences of the job cuts and tried to build a strategy to promote the interests of the Fylde rather than to accept that job cuts and economic misery are inevitable.
Exposed - Facts and Figures of the Job Cuts
The Rt. Hon Michael Jack MP (Fylde) has tabled a series of questions in the House of Commons as to the extent of the job cuts in the DWP (alone) in the Fylde over the past five years. The responses are grim reading as follows, broken down into Council Boroughs. The figures are in whole time equivalents Job Cuts between 2005 and 2009:
The Rt. Hon Michael Jack MP (Fylde) has tabled a series of questions in the House of Commons as to the extent of the job cuts in the DWP (alone) in the Fylde over the past five years. The responses are grim reading as follows, broken down into Council Boroughs. The figures are in whole time equivalents Job Cuts between 2005 and 2009:
Blackpool = 245
Fylde = 1,057
Wyre = 860
Fylde = 1,057
Wyre = 860
TOTAL JOB CUTS ACROSS THE “FYLDE” = 2,162
NB. The above figures also include some people who have been privatised and also some transferred out of the DWP. However some of the privatised areas have also had job cuts not included in the above.
The figures are truly desperate. No wonder there are so many people unemployed and unable to find work on the Fylde. There is also the proposal to cut the Civil Service Compensation scheme which is an outrageous attempt to cut people’s jobs on the cheap at a time when many on the Fylde are worried about job security. We can clearly see that there has been a consensus formed by the political elite in the country that there will be a need for more job cuts to pay for the bail out of the bankers and the millionaire class, that means that many more jobs in the DWP on the Fylde and indeed across the Public Sector are at risk over the next few years.
Of course this does not bode well for the future of job opportunities in the area. This is obviously of great concern especially for the unemployed seeking a decent job in the Fylde area. Once the worst of the recession created by the bankers is over then there will attempts at a purge on Civil Service jobs. Cutting the compensation makes it cheaper to get rid of people.
Statements made by political leaders recently about more job cuts in the Public Sector to pay for the excesses of the bankers could make the jobs situation on the Fylde even worse. We would call upon all the interested parties in the Fylde to work together to get a grip on the jobs situation, before it becomes too late.
Conclusion
The Branch will continue to campaign to defend jobs in the area and also raise key issues such as the expectations of those left behind after the job cuts and the pressures to deliver increasing workloads with fewer and fewer staff.
The Branch will continue to campaign to defend jobs in the area and also raise key issues such as the expectations of those left behind after the job cuts and the pressures to deliver increasing workloads with fewer and fewer staff.
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