Beware social enterprise

Staff at Greenwich library are to strike on Tuesday October 14 in a dispute over staff cuts, reduction of services and pay.

The 84 library assistants and senior library assistants will then ‘work to rule’ from Wednesday October 15.

Staff will be taking strike action for 24 hours from 00.01 on Tuesday against Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), the social enterprise company awarded the contract in 2012 to run the Royal Borough of Greenwich’s library service.

“Since GLL took over the service one library has closed, the mobile service is under constant threat and staffing has been cut,” said Onay Kasab, Unite regional officer.

“On top of these cuts GLL have said it will not be replicating any pay rises that the local authority workers get, which amounts to a kick in the teeth for those workers left to provide the service,” He added.

Greenwich Leisure, which runs a number of leisure centres across the capital and uses zero-hour contracts for two thirds of its staff – yet the company claims to be a ‘social enterprise’.

“This shows once again that ‘social enterprise’ is not a soft alternative to privatisation. GLL is behaving as badly as any profit hungry company,” said Onay Kasab.

Unite estimates that 12 staff have been lost since GLL took over in 2012 and that a reduction in front-line staff numbers will have a negative impact on the service provided to Greenwich residents.