News

IT staff vote for strike over outsourcing job losses

June 13, 2005

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.

Source: http://management.silicon.com