Savage cuts take their toll on fed-up staff at Glasgow City Council

Aug 9 2012 By Joe McGuire

ROCK-BOTTOM morale and plummeting job satisfaction are making life a misery for Glasgow City Council staff, a survey has shown.

The report revealed that increased workload, unsatisfactory pay, poor management and lack of
staff and resources have left staff unhappy.

Of 6545 staff who took part in the survey, 62 per cent said their jobs have got worse over the past three years.

Almost a quarter said they considered the council to be one of the worst employers around.

A third of the staff reported that stress from work impinged on their personal lives.

More than half said they had been subjected to abuse from the public.

And 30 per cent said they had been bullied by a colleague or superior.

Glasgow, like many councils, have been hit by cost-cutting measures.

In recent years, the authority have shed more than 3000 jobs as they try to find tens of millions of pounds of savings.

But other councils surveyed attained better results in the staff survey.

A Unison spokesman said: “These results reflect the austerity measures being placed on public services and the warnings from trade unions on the effects on services and employees.

“The main challenge for the council is that these results are worse than other local authorities sampled.

“This can only be attributed to the perception of an aggressive managerial style and this is
demonstrated on issues such as bullying and harassment, openness and transparency, general communications and low morale.

“The results reflect the repeated feedback from our membership.”

SNP group leader Graeme Hendry said staff concerns about career progression had been fuelled by
high-level posts being filled by external applicants.

He said: “Frontline staff are concerned by the implementation of tomorrow’s workforce and lack
of progression for themselves as senior staff seem to be repeatedly recruited externally.

“The recent recruitment of the ex-Labour MSP Tom McCabe to a senior position within the council only a few weeks ago may well be one example of how a lack of progression opportunities is having such bad impact on staff morale.

“There were 14 internal applicants for this post. It seems hard to believe that none of them were good enough, given the council is trying to reduce headcount.”

A council spokesman said they were “absolutely determined to root out bullying”.

He added: “It is important that we understand the survey results in their context and, clearly, these are very challenging times for the public sector and its workforce.

“Our workforce is smaller and adapting to doing more with fewer resources.

“Across the sector, colleagues have accepted pay freezes.”