GMB Calls On Dundee Leisure Bosses To ‘Come Clean’ Over Greenkeepers’ Future

GMB Calls On Dundee Leisure Bosses To ‘Come Clean’ Over Greenkeepers’ Future

GMB Scotland has today (Tuesday 7 February) called on Leisure and Culture Dundee (LACD) to come clean over the future of seven greenkeepers after learning that private offers have been submitted for the city’s public golf courses.

Amid fears of a race to the bottom for leisure services and local workers being plunged into low pay, GMB Scotland understands that market testing for the purchase of the Caird Park and Camperdown courses has led to two bids being tendered.

However, efforts by the workers and their trade union to get answers over the nature of the bids and the prospects for terms and conditions and future investment have been repeatedly stonewalled by LACD management.

GMB Scotland Organiser Helen Meldrum said: “Our members have been kept totally in the dark throughout this process and with the Caird Park and Camperdown now on the cusp of privatisation, LACD are still giving us nothing.

The greenkeepers have never wavered in their efforts to provide the public with a great golfing experience but having suffered years of cuts to their services and skills, they feel they’ve been hung out to dry by management.

This privatisation agenda should send alarm bells ringing because with even more Scottish Government cuts to council funding this year, it’s unlikely this will be the only sell-off of publicly owned assets in Dundee.

The very least LACD can do is to come clean over the future for their workers for what used to be among the busiest golf courses in Europe, the managed decline of these courses is just another example of Scotland’s austerity shame.”

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Contact: GMB Scotland Organiser Helen Meldrum on 07958 156838 or Peter Welsh, GMB Scotland Communications, on 07976 447077.