Union in row over Lancashire County Council job losses (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Union in row over Lancashire County Council job losses

10:10am Thursday 5th July 2012 in North Lancashire news By Bill Jacobs , Local government reporter

The giant GMB union and Lancashire County Council have got into a row over how many jobs the Tory-led authority has axed since the coalition government was formed in 2010.

The union claims staff at the authority has fallen by 5,376 but its leader Geoff Driver said the actual figure for redundancies was only 1,500.

The GMB said North West council jobs had fallen by 34,300 or 11.2 per cent – the fourth highest in England and Wales.

It said its figures, derived from the Office of National Statistics, showed that Lancashire had seen the greatest fall claiming that the number of workers employed by the county had fallen by 5,376 or 12.5 per cent.

The GMB says Blackburn with Darwen Council has seen 614 jobs losses (7.6 per cent of the total work-force), Burnley 119 (17.4 per cent); Rossendale 88 (29.8 per cent); Hyndburn 82 (19.8 per cent); Pendle 62 (15.2 per cent); Ribble Valley 36 (12.3 per cent) and Chorley 14 (3.8 per cent).

County Coun Driver said: “The figures quoted by the GMB are inaccurate. In the past two years, the number of people working for the county council has fallen by 1,500, and not 5,376 as incorrectly stated by the GMB.”

Paul McCarthy, GMB regional secretary said: “What lies behind these statistics is the cold hard fact that this government has destroyed 34,300 local authority jobs in the North West.

“These cuts have created unemployment, denied job opportunities to young people and cut services.”