Public Sector Cuts and Strikes in Europe

'Painful' Public Service Cuts Ahead for Scots

October 12, 2010

The Scotsman - Key services in Scotland will be hit by "painful" cuts with the country's politicians facing their "biggest challenge since devolution".

Jim Gallagher, formerly an adviser at 10 Downing Street and a one-time head of the Scottish Justice Department, makes the prediction in The Scotsman today in an article written jointly with Professor Jeremy Peat, a director of the David Hume Institute and former group chief economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mr Gallagher and Prof Peat claim the "health budget faces heavy pressures" due to a package of cuts that cannot be avoided. They go on to say that pay and pensions "dominate" public expenditure and governments had been "spending fairy gold" leading to the funding crisis in the sector.

Politicians were also warned that big reductions in spending on public services would have to be "managed" as the funding squeeze continued. The claims were made ahead of this UK government's spending review on 20 October, which is expected to lead to deep cuts in public expenditure.

Mr Gallagher and Prof Peat wrote:

"Now big reductions have to be managed -- exactly how big we'll learn later this month.

"So Scotland's politicians face their biggest challenge since devolution -- especially hard when an election looms.

"Cuts cannot be avoided, and that means painful choices."

Four Year Plan for Spending Cuts Will Not Be Derailed Says Minister

October 11, 2010

The Scotsman - The UK Government's package of cuts will "stay on track" for the next four years regardless of short-term shocks to the economy, the Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has warned.

Mr Hammond said departments will be given "clear and firm" budgets to cut the deficit by 2015, and that there would be no "cliff edge next year".

His comments came as a row erupted over the controversial cuts programme, which Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson said would be "fundamentally" worse than those made by Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s.

Alex Salmond stepped-in to the row yesterday, with a spokesman for the First Minister saying that the UK Tory-Lib Dem coalition government's cuts were "far too quick and far too deep".

Mr Hammond said:

"The plans that the Chancellor will set out on 20 October will set out a pattern of reduction for departments over the four years of the spending review...

"Departments will reduce their spending over a period of four years.

"So if a department is reducing its spending by 25 per cent overall, it won't be 25 per cent in year one. It will be maybe 6 per cent in year one, and 6 per cent in year two. So these are manageable cuts over a period of time" ...

Spanish Unemployment Continues Rising — Highest in EU

October 4, 2010

Monsters and Critics - The number of registered jobless people in Spain rose by 1.2 per cent month-on-month to 4.02 million in September, figures released by the Labour Ministry showed Monday.

The year-on-year increase was 8.3 per cent.

Unemployment went up especially in the service sector, while it declined in construction, industry and agriculture.

Spain has the highest unemployment in the European Union, with the numbers out of work creeping up from 20.3 per cent in July to 20.5 per cent in August, the EU's statistics body Eurostat said last week.

Romanian Public Servants Go on General Strike Indefinitely from Sept 27

Romanian public servants will go on general strike indefinitely starting Monday, September 27, said Sebastian Oprescu, head of the National Union of Public Servants (SNFP), adding public servants are starving and are heavily indebted.

September 14, 2010

romania-insider.com - Some 34,000 public servants affiliated with SNFP would go on general strike indefinitely, as of September 27, demanding that their salaries go back to the level prior to the 25 percent public sector wage cut, layoff plans be scrapped. and that they get legal protection. The National Federation of Unions in Administration might also join the public servants’ strike, Oprescu has also said.

The general strike will hinder the activity in 350 public institutions in the central and local public administration, such as, the Financial Guard, the Labor Inspection, the Consumer Protection Authority, the National College for the Study of the Securitate Archives, or CNSAS, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Transport and the National Environment Guard.

“If unions’ protest actions can be correlated with union federations’ actions, then, the general strike might take place earlier, on September 22, when an ample protest rally is organized in capital Bucharest, but public servants will no longer set up protest rallies, because they brought us nothing good”, said Oprescu. Public servants’ wages range from RON 600 to RON 700 (EUR 140 to EUR 164).