NUPW: Hold on strike action

Strike action is off the cards for the moment but the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) is outraged at the non-payment this month of hundreds of temporary public workers.
Before a capacity audience at an emergency general meeting at Dalkeith headquarters last night, NUPW?general secretary Dennis Clarke did not give more than 300 angry members a definitive position but promised to meet with personnel agencies “and get a better deal than what we are witnessing at the moment”.
There has been speculation of likely layoffs in the public service and statutory corporations and Clarke hinted that it may not be as simple as last in, first out.
“That could be complicated, because it may not be easy to work out who is really senior. If you are working in the Probabtion Department as a clerical officer, you can have in five years service but then you have an officer at the Welfare Department with only two years service but the man with five years service can find himself going on.?So, how can you reconcile that?
“We have agreed with the personnel agencies that that should not happen and should it occur, we will make the necessary representation on behalf of the workers.
“What is required is a data base so we would know how the seniority in years of service pans out. We have asked the shop stewards to give us the information so we would know who is senior in case there is downsizing in the public service,” he said.