Members of the public service union, NIPSA, were protesting outside the Housing Executive on March 26th. The Union has accused management of sacking over 60 temporary staff in the past few weeks without any consultation, and without any arrangements being made to cover the work. Bosses had previously agreed to take no action until the union had seen new staffing plans, but then went ahead and broke the agreement.Although Northern Ireland has a record number of homeless the Housing Executive intend to cut at least 400 jobs. If government promises are to be believed and new social housing is to be provided, homeless people to be found homes and the standard of the Housing Executive stock brought up to the ‘Decent Homes’ standard, how does cutting 15% of the workforce help?

The cuts were first announced by Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor, and have now been taken up by Finance Minister Peter Robinson and his Sinn Fein partners.

NIPSA branches in the Housing Executive are being consulted to gauge members’ support for action to oppose the job losses. A letter to branches asks them to “consult with members and provide their delegates with information on the number of members who would support a programme of industrial action and to comment on the shape and content of such a programme.”

Senior management have shown how little they care for the needs of tenants, how little they care about new starts to reduce the housing list, and how little they care for the workers whose jobs they want to scrap. A united and determined workforce is the way to make the cuts unworkable, anything less invites management to keep coming back looking for more and more cuts.

This article is from Workers Solidarity 103, May - June 2008

PDF of the southern edition of WS103
PDF of northern edition of WS103