Background Job Cuts Announced in PDCS on 30th March 2010
On Tuesday 30th March 2010 the employer announced that over one thousand one hundred jobs would be cut in the Pension, Disability and Carers Service between now and 31st March 2011. As PDCS is one of the largest units of the DWP on the Fylde then the there is a serious potential for large scale job cuts on the Fylde impacting on everyone.
Local Impact
The employer has now confirmed the local impact of the cuts to be as follows (please note that these appear to be whole time equivalent cuts and therefore the actual number of people being lost from employ may be far higher).
Please note that as you can calculate this as approximately one in five jobs in Helpline/ BEL and one and ten jobs in DCPU Ops are to be cut. Please also note that if the present headcount is above the March 2010 target then there may be more cuts.
The imposition of the cuts in the Civil Service Compensation scheme (which is an outrageous attempt to cut people’s jobs on the cheap) shows that the job security is a key issue to everyone. It now appears that more job cuts are being planned to pay for the bail out of the bankers and the millionaire class. Now that the worst of the recession created by the bankers is over then there will be attempts at a purge on Civil Service jobs. Cutting the compensation makes it cheaper to get rid of people, so there will be more job cuts planned.
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.
