Planning officers at Westminster council have joined striking support staff today to protest against plans to outsource the council’s services.
The move means that the whole of Westminster’s planning team, excluding senior managers such as Carl Powell, will be on strike.
The strike, organised by the trade union Unison, is protesting against council plans to hand many council services to Vertex (SW1), an outsourcing consortium.
The 10-year contract, which is due to start in November 2002, will be worth around £1bn.
Unison is concerned that the deal, which has had no public examination, will lead to staff being cut out of the local government pension scheme.
Unison’s Westminster branch secretary George Foggo added that staff could be relocated outside Westminster in two years, after an agreement to maintain a call centre in the city expires.
Support staff at the council went on strike two weeks ago in protest against the deal.
Rahul Patel, who is co-ordinating the strike for Unison, said: “We started with around 50 staff on strike, mainly support staff. But around 250 are now on strike, indefinitely.
“That now includes all of Westminster’s planning officers, and some second-tier managers. Planning in Westminster has ceased to function.”
EGi News 12/08/02
