Public sector workers have reacted with fury to an email from David Cameron and Nick Clegg inviting them to identify waste in their own departments. Six million workers were asked to ‘be bold’ in suggesting ways to cut costs, just days after being told of a two-year pay freeze.
"Tell us where to cut. Don't hold back"
Cameron and Clegg urged workers to be ‘radical’, saying: ‘Don’t hold back.’ Their email said: ‘You work on the frontline of public services. You know where things are working well, where the waste is, and where we can re-think things so that we get better services for less money.’ Workers are asked to leave suggestions on a special website by 9th July.
Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, said: ‘Cameron and Clegg have a damned cheek in asking public sector workers to co-operate in sacking thousands of them. It is an utter outrage.’ The GMB said it would join other unions to ‘resist the savage cuts’ to public services. Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the proposed 25% cuts in most Whitehall budgets would strike the ‘vital services we all rely on. . . it will hit the poorest and the most vulnerable the most’.
