Unison, the union which represents 5,000 workers at the county council, said cuts to pay or working conditions were the latest erosion of pay and conditions for their members.
Spokesman Steve Bennett said: “The Government is not giving the council enough money so Northamptonshire has to ask them for more or put up the council tax. I know that won’t be popular but we currently have the lowest council tax in the country and if we don’t watch out we could have the lowest standard of service too.”
He said he had deep concerns about the sick pay proposals: “We need to be very careful about this. There will be people who can’t afford to lose a day or two’s pay and will go into work with the flu or diarrhoea.
“If they are working in a care home for the elderly, they could spread it. They could wipe out a care home full of elderly people in no time at all.”
A spokesman for the GMB union said the county council were “in hindsight, making Margaret Thatcher look like Mother Theresa.”
Meanwhile, opposition councillors have given a hostile reception to cost-cutting proposals announced this week and questioned the priorities of the decision-makers.
Councillor John McGhee, who leads the Labour group, said: “It is absolutely disgraceful. The staff have faced constant attacks year after year. Rather than reducing staff they should be looking at how much money the authority has given to Silverstone or whether we need to be funding an office in Brussels [for the Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership]. It’s fundamentally wrong”.
Opposition leader, Lib Dem councillor Brendan Glynane said: “It beggars belief that on the day the Conservatives announce they are increasing the size of their Cabinet, proposals emerge that could drastically slash the pay and conditions for staff at County Hall. This comes only a month after the Tories voted down a Liberal Democrat amendment to cut the pay of the Conservative Leader and Cabinet, as well as the Leader of the Opposition. It is crystal clear from the Conservatives’ actions that they do not believe that ‘we’re all in this together’”.
Among a string of comments posted on the Chron website after the story broke, independent county councillor Tony Clarke said: “Why should public employees, who in the main are paid less than those in the private sector, have their terms and conditions weakened and paid sickness reduced and have to take unpaid leave? =This is a cut too far and council staff should not be punished for the failings of a Tory/Lib Dem government. They have gone too far this time and the unrest which will follow is both predictable and unnecessary.
One reader, Kevin Smith, said: “If the staff were to strike now I wouldn’t blame them one bit. The ground floor staff can take only so much.
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