By Andy McCue, 13 June 2005 16:50
NEWS Bradford council management is in last ditch talks with a trade union after IT staff voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action over a £160m outsourcing deal.
IT staff were balloted on industrial action after union Unison claimed the council had broken promises during earlier rounds of contract negotiations that there would be no job losses as a result of the Bradford-i outsourcing project.
The council has now admitted that at least 22 jobs will be axed with another 40 directly impacted by the outsourcing.
Out of the 75 ballot papers issued 66 were returned with over 90 per cent voting in favour of industrial action. Unison will be meeting council management today and on Wednesday, and said it hopes to make some progress.
The Bradford council IT outsourcing row resurfaced last month after winning outsourcing bidder ITNet was taken over by services firm Serco, which then revealed plans to make some of the 105 IT staff redundant.
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1. Anon
Yet another example of how not to do it - don't they ever learn? How many times do they have to see this approach won't work before they do things differently? Hope you guys don't end up going out on strike but if you do stick together and you'll pull through. You may not win the war but some of the battles are worth fighting along the way.
2. Tony Sygrove
Something has got to be done about outsourcing companies winning contracts and half way through the negotiations being taken over by some-one else and changing vital parts of the contract. If this does happen then the contract should be null and void and either re-tendered or offered to the second place contractor.
I second the motion that the Bradford council staff should strike if only to see fair play which this undoubtedly was not. My full support it with the Council staff.