Trade unions warn of likelihood that outsourcing will lead to huge price hikes and corner-cutting on staffing.

Representatives of GMB, NIPSA and UNITE are adopting a united front against proposals before Ards & North Down District Council which threaten to hand over leisure services to the private management company Serco.

The unions highlight the poor track record of the controversial company and warn that experience in Belfast City Council where leisure services have been outsourced have been a huge hike to user charges and attacks on workers’ rights through introduction of a two-tier workforce.

The unions pledged their full opposition to the threat and called on the public to attend a demonstration against the proposal which is to held at 6pm on Wednesday 25^th October at Bangor Castle.

A spokesperson for the joint trade union side said:

“Staff, Unions and the ratepayers in Ards and North Down Council are united in the fight to keep the remaining Leisure services in-house and are also seeking the return of those leisure centres already handed over to a private organisation.

“Management at the council promised to bring these services back in-house only for them to renege upon that commitment at the last minute with no consultation. Not content with this – they now seek to hand over all leisure services to this company.  

“Far from this being likely to save ratepayers money and improve services, the evidence is clear that it will NOT. The council is already wasting huge sums – over £100k as we understand it – on private consultants to facilitate the handover of leisure services to profit-seeking companies. We have concerns that the private consultants are being hired with the aim of obtaining information to simply enable SERCO to make a successful bid to take over these services. This poses obvious questions for a conflict of interest and an appropriate use of ratepayers’ money. 

“The experience of outsourcing of leisure services elsewhere – including in Belfast City Council – has been dreadful. Profits trump service delivery with corner-cutting on standards, health and safety and staffing, huge hikes to user charges and a race-to-the-bottom through a two-tier workforce on staff terms and conditions, rates of pay and breaches in the working time directive. 

“Leisure services are subsidized by the council ratepayers who now face a double-whammy with huge price hikes facing users of gyms and swims.

“Attempts in Belfast council to bring leisure services back in-house because of the huge levels of concern among the public and workers have been frustrated as councillors have been threatened with enormous fines and large-scale job losses from withdrawing from the contract. The fear is that once this is decided by councillors, Ards & North Down would find itself similarly trapped in a problematic arrangement. 

“The politicians and council management must listen to both the concerns of the workforce and the public who rely on these vital services.”

The trade unions are encouraging the public to show their support for leisure workers and rally to the upcoming demonstration and to click this link to sign the petition demanding councillors remove the threat of privatization and bring all council leisure services back into council management.