Council staff stage first of eight planned strikes in workload row

Council housing workers have gone on strike outside Aberdeen’s HQ in a workload dispute.

Yesterday was the first of eight days of industrial action planned for outside Marischal College, and comes after talks with management failed.

Aberdeen City Council plans to merge the housing officers and support officer job roles into one, despite concerns that excessive workloads have left staff at “breaking point”.

John Boland, Unite regional officer, said: “Nobody wants to be doing this, but we all felt there was no other option. We will be striking until the end of July unless the council’s position changes.”

A group of Unite members gathered outside Marischal College wearing trade union highvisibility vests to hand out leaflets explaining their actions. The group walked around the council headquarters waving eyecatching Unite flags.

Staff believe that combining the roles will be “detrimental” to customers as the need for support has “risen threefold” during the pandemic.

Mr Boland added: “We’ve been in discussion with Aberdeen City Council for over a year regarding the plans to merge the housing and support officer roles.”

The Unite members believe that any changes to the level of service they provide will have a negative impact on the tenants and homeless in Aberdeen.

Mr Boland said: “If you’re putting two roles together, that’s not going to reduce the workload.”

Council workers are striking over workload dispute.