A poorer workforce delivering poorer services in Inverness – that is the damning conclusion of a report released today by UNISON, who surveyed members living in the Inverness area.
UNISON has been publishing a series of reports across a range of sectors and across Scotland which show time and again that austerity is not working.
Public service workers have taken the brunt of austerity cuts. They often struggle to pay the bills and are under constant stress at work.
The story is the same: public-service workers working harder and earning less.
The results paint a damning picture of the reality of delivering public services and those who deliver them in the Inverness area:
- 62% report that they are worse off than they were four years ago;
- 47% report that they sometimes struggle to make ends meet;
- 75% say their job has become harder in the last four years;
- 73% say that the budget for their service has gone down;
- 54% say that the quality of the public service they provide has gone down.
“If there is a recovery going on – its effects are not being felt by UNISON members who live in the Inverness area,” says UNISON Scottish organiser Dave Watson.
“The Conservative and Lib Dem government has made the choice about how the financial crisis is tackled which has seen the wealth of the richest spiral while workers in public services struggle.
“It is clear that austerity economics isn’t working in Inverness any more than anywhere else.
“We need investment in services and wage-led growth in our economy and politicians who set their sights higher than poorer workers and poorer services.
“This is a public services election: If you care for them you need to get out and vote for them.”