Staff working in Fife Council-run care homes are said to be in despair at the decision to close them.
Unions representing the workers at the 10 homes said they had been inundated with calls from angry carers who fear for their jobs and the future of residents.
The GMB union said its first concern was to save the homes, claiming there was a huge groundswell of opinion among staff, residents and their families.
Unison, meanwhile, said the council had placed its lowest paid workers at risk and questioned how services to protect the region’s most vulnerable people could be protected.
The local authority said it intended to enter into talks with staff and trade unions with input from the council’s human resources department in the next few weeks.
John Moist of the GMB said the feeling among workers was one of “absolute anger,” adding. “I don’t think I’ve ever had so many phone calls on a single issue on a single day in my life. Staff will not accept what the council seems to be intending to do.”ResistMr Moist has asked the council’s trades union secretary to organise a meeting as soon as possible, and said the GMB intended to “resist this as strongly as we can.”
He added that if the council did press ahead with its closure plan then, as an absolute minimum, the GMB would insist the service of all members of staff would be protected.
“Their wages and all their terms and conditions would have to be protected,” he said. “There has been negligible consultation on the whole issue and it’s been shrouded in secrecy. I think the way it has been done is really, really shabby.
“If there was any shred of decency in the administration they would take this back and have a full debate at full council.”
Unison branch secretary Linda Erskine added, “It is difficult to understand why the decision has been made as it is in direct opposition to the outcome of the consultation exercise with both staff and members of the public, which was considered by the committee.
“When chief officers of social work first proposed this consultation exercise, feedback from staff was unanimous in that the consultation exercise was a tick box exercise for the social work managers.
“It was clear from the outset … the final decision would be to hand the responsibility of this valuable service to the private sector.
“What this means is that, once again, the highest paid officers in social work have ensured that they have placed their lowest paid workers (mainly female) at risk,” she said.