Anger at treatment of staff

TRADE unionists have expressed anger at the way under-threat school librarians have been treated in North Lanarkshire.

Unison branch secretary Marie Quigley said her members were “rightly angered” about the way the council is treating them as it moves to enact a budget cut to abolish librarians in all of its secondary schools.

The decision was made as part of the local authority’s budget process in 2020 but has been delayed due to various factors including the pandemic. However, last week the council finally acted to axe the jobs.

Ms Quigley said: “Two-and-ahalf years ago, despite continued opposition from Unison and communities, the council decided to cut all of its school librarians.

“Unbelievably, the librarians have had to wait until last week for NLC to contact them. Our members are rightly angry about how they have been treated by their employer.

“It’s an appalling way to treat highly skilled and dedicated staff.

“The promised review of library services has so far failed to materialise, leaving kids in schools without a crucial support at a time where education services are feeling the effects of a decade of cuts on top of the disruption caused by the pandemic. Staff and kids in North Lanarkshire are being let down again.”

A council spokesperson said: “In February 2020 the council agreed to remove 23 FTE library resource manager posts from secondary schools as part of a move to integrate existing library services across schools and wider communities.

“This integrated service will provide wider access to library resources for young people.

“Implementation was delayed by the pandemic, but in March this year a review group was set up involving teaching and non-teaching staff and the trade unions.

“Meetings have taken place with affected staff, who will be offered a range of options including voluntary redundancy and redeployment.

“There are currently six FTE vacancies in the service so this will involve 17 members of staff.”

Meanwhile a petition lobbying against the cuts on website change.org has attracted more than 1000 signatures in just two days.