CBI ‘living in a Thatcherite wonderland’ – UNISON response to CBI submission

Mon 21 February 2011

UNISON, Scotland’s largest union in public services, has criticised a submission by the CBI on the future delivery of public services claiming it is living in a Thatcherite wonderland.

The union says the CBI’s call for private companies to have a ‘right to bid’ to deliver public services would lead to a complex chain of contractual relationships with huge cost implications. It would also require an army of people to manage it, taking staffing resources away from where they are needed most – delivering frontline services.

In its submission to the Christie Commission – a group established by the Scottish Government to look at the long term pattern of public service delivery in Scotland – the CBI also talks of privatising Scottish Water, a move which would cost the taxpayer far more than keeping it in public hands.

Mike Kirby, UNISON’s Scottish Secretary, said: “Public money is for delivering public services, not lining shareholders’ pockets, and the CBI’s talk of a ‘right to bid’ for public services quite clearly shows they are living in a Thatcherite wonderland.

“The evidence on privatisation, outsourcing and shared services is not that they are cheaper and better run – quite the opposite. We have seen time and time again the huge failures of privatisation; a perfect example is the outsourcing of hospital cleaning which resulted in the number of cleaners being cut in half and hospital infections rising as a result.

“The CBI is merely bowing to the myth that privatisation will deliver savings and improvements while experience shows it breaks up integrated provision, lowers standards and costs the public twice as much.”

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Notes to editors:
Other examples of the massive failures of privatisation are: 

1.     In November last year, a leaked report revealed that British Telecom was overcharging Liverpool City Council by £10 million a year for outsourced services. The controversial report, conducted by the council itself, criticised what has been regarded as one of the UK’s flagship outsourcing projects. It highlighted that the council could save £23 million a year by cancelling the contract for IT services and a call-centre operation, and taking the work in-house.

2.     Last week, it was revealed that two Scottish police forces are considering privatising cells in a bid to save money. Press reports revealed the two forces were in discussions with private security firm G4 Security to provide prison cells. UNISON condemned the plans as “crazy” and claimed it would result in another costly PFI scheme which would be bad value for money for the taxpayer. One of the police forces in England that tried this is Staffordshire. As a result of a freedom of information request from the UNISON police branch, we now know that the service costs three times more than the original cost of the in-house provision.


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UNISON attacks Scottish CBI hypocrisy over public service cuts

12 September 2010

UNISON Scotland today responded to a call from the Chair of CBI Scotland to end the ‘war of words’ over public services. At the CBI Scotland annual dinner Linda Urquhart declared it was time to “call a halt to ‘them and us’ attitudes which have prevailed for decades”.

UNISON Scotland Convenor Mike Kirby said:
“A halt to them and us attitudes from big business would indeed be welcome. However, it is hard to take such calls seriously when the rest of Linda Urquhart’s speech was an unrestrained attack on public service delivery.”

“The current financial crisis was caused by private corporate folly and the deregulated financial system that the CBI supported. It is public service workers and the communities they serve that are paying the price of the policy agenda promoted by big business. To impose this failed policy on public services would be further economic vandalism.”

The CBI leaders speech also called for further privatisation of public services. Evidence submitted by UNISON Scotland to Parliament last week shows that this approach has cost the taxpayer millions of pounds in extra costs and undermined the integrated delivery of services.

Mike Kirby said:
“In a week that has seen the spectacular collapse of a leading outsourcing company (Connaught), it is a strange time to call for the imposition of further chaos on hard pressed councils. Public services should be democratically accountable to local communities, not to the Boards of big business who are driven solely by the need to make profits.”

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Note to Editors:
UNISON Scotland’s briefing to parliament on these issues can be found online at http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/ briefings/index.html


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