TUC report condemns proposed public service 'efficiency' cuts

A TUC report published today challenges the "commonly-held" opinion that the public services are stuffed full of "bowler hats and bureaucrats" and that job cuts can be made with no negative impact upon public services.

The report, ‘Bowler hats and bureaucrats - myths about the public sector workforce’, shows that the public sector operates with far fewer managers than the private sector.

The report says that politicians claim that big savings can be made by axing thousands of civil service and other public sector managerial posts, and that this would deliver services more efficiently. Yet by analysing official statistics, the report says that private sector managers are responsible for six staff on average, in the public sector they are responsible for 14 staff.

According to the Labour Force Survey, the private sector’s three million managers are responsible for 17.5 million members of staff. Almost a fifth (17.5 per cent) of employees in the private sector are managers, compared to less than one in ten (7.5 per cent) in the public sector. This equates to roughly one manager for every six employees. However, the public sector has just 0.5 million managers on its payroll, in charge of around 6.8 million workers, with each manager responsible for 14 staff.

The Government’s Gershon Efficiency Review has identified £20 billion in possible cuts that could be made to the civil service, which would see 70,000 jobs going from central government departments. However, the TUC report estimates that savings of some £18 billion could be made in public procurement and through the better use of technology, without having to cut a single post.

‘Bowler hats and bureaucrats’ is also critical of the Conservative Party's James Review, which proposed cuts of some £33 billion with a loss of 235,000 civil service jobs, 90,000 of which would be privatised. Such severe cuts, says the report, would make it impossible for the public sector to either continue to manage public expenditure or deliver services efficiently.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "Public servants have become easy targets for some politicians. They want us to believe two things about the public services that are both wrong. First that you can make easy cuts to management and bureaucrats, without having any effect on public service delivery.

"Second that there is an easy distinction between front line- staff who are all wonderful, and backroom staff who are a drag on the system. And what’s worse, in the next breath they will tell us that teachers should be given the time to teach and policemen the time to catch criminals, which of course they couldn’t do if they had to take over the vital support tasks done by the so-called bureaucrats they want to sack.

"And what takes the biscuit is that politicians keep going to the finance sector for advice on these issues when the figures clearly show they employ more managers and bureaucrats than almost anyone else."

(GB)