The crippling budget cuts being forced upon Dundee are “unacceptable” and must be resisted, city unions and COSLA have said.
The local authority umbrella group believes many councils across the country will push back against the Scottish Government as they face slashing millions and shedding jobs.
Unite and Unison have raised fears that a significant number of council jobs will go and have cast doubt on the SNP administration’s pledge that there will be no compulsory redundancies.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, meanwhile, has condemned the £23 million cuts outlined by Dundee City Council for 2016/17 and has called for a new, “no-cuts” budget.
Union bosses have been accused by Dundee City Council leader Ken Guild of causing “unnecessary panic” over fears of council job cuts.
He continues to stress that there will be no compulsory redundancies in the wake of letters being sent to 6,000 staff asking them to consider voluntary redundancy.
Nonetheless, the SNP administration has admitted that the budget cuts represent the greatest challenge it has faced and there are fears that must lead to greater pain than that outlined to date.
A COSLA spokesman said: “COSLA got a crystal clear steer at the end of December that the package of measures in John Swinney’s budget for local government would be totally unacceptable.
“We have not only a huge funding cut of £350 million or 3.5% but also additional pressures that will see job losses and services slashed.
“This situation has come about because of policy choices made by the Scottish Government.
“It is for these reasons the package of measures, including the council tax freeze, are unacceptable and that for the government to say it has agreed to a council tax freeze for a ninth successive year is simply inaccurate.”
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition has been critical of the council administration’s response to the cuts, saying: “For a political party that supposedly stands on an anti-austerity platform to be preparing to implement this scale of cuts is utterly unacceptable.
“It surely cannot be the job of SNP councillors, or indeed of any claimed anti-austerity party, to meekly play pass-the-parcel with Tory cuts.
“Councils up and down the country, most of them led by either the SNP or Labour, have a choice: make the Tory cuts or stand up and defend the working class, our jobs and the services we rely on.
“This is best done by using all the financial powers of the local authorities to set no-cuts budgets as a first step in a mass campaign of defiance that will fight to win back the resources to fully fund a budget for the needs of the people of Dundee.”
The city’s major unions, meanwhile, fear for the future of council posts no matter the assurances they have received.
Unison branch secretary for Dundee, Jim McFarlane, said: “There is a lot of fear in the minds of public sector workers after the announcement was made and it does not help anyone when, so far, they have been left in the dark on where exactly these cuts are to be made.
“It’s a very bad situation to find yourself in and I think what is more worrying to the workers is the possibility that their job might not even exist afterwards.
Colin Coupar, the regional organiser for Unite, added: “There will be panic in the minds of thousands of public service employees.
“Either the council already has an outline plan to soften the blow of these cuts that have to be made, or it is making it up as it goes along.
“I have represented groups within the public and private sector for over 30 years and I have never seen a situation as sensitive as this executed so badly.
“A lot of people’s jobs are on the line.”