Aberdeenshire UNISON has welcomed the council’s continuing commitment to avoid redundancies in favour of looking for further efficiencies alongside staff, residents and trade unions when the 2016/17 budget was discussed at full council on 19th November 2015.
Branch secretary, Inez Teece said, “We recognise that times are tough but as Aberdeenshire council has rightly recognised, staff are their most valuable resource and are often the ones who know best how to improve the services they provide to the citizens of Aberdeenshire”.
“We will be engaging fully in the planned consultation exercise and we will be encouraging our members to do the same”.
Inez added, “We are also pleased that there are no plans to privatise council services and that they have listened to UNISON and recognised that outsourcing is a short term fix which ends up costing councils more in the long run”.
“However staff need more than fine words. They need to be valued and supported to do their job and to provide the best possible services to their users. Where posts haven’t been filled they have taken up the slack often at cost to themselves. They need to be protected too with manageable workloads and good working environment”.