HUNDREDS of workers will be balloted for strike action over shocking plans to privatise IT services at Glasgow City Council in a bid to cut costs, their union announced yesterday.

Unison has warned that the plans to hand over the the council’s entire IT service to Canadian multinational CGI, in a deal worth an estimated £400 million, will damage the service and lead to job losses.

Glasgow branch secretary Brian Smith said: “The council appears to be moving down the road of privatisation.

“Unison will continue to put the case for an in-house model which we believe is best for Glasgow’s citizens who rely on council services, council taxpayers and the workforce.”

Mr Smith announced that a ballot for strike action will begin next week as the councils plans pose “clear threat to jobs, employment conditions, pensions and services.”

The process will also have major implications on services ranging from school lessons to monitoring information on children in care and the sex offenders’ register.

Worryingly, the proposed firm has been implicated in the US Obamacare crisis, where the outgoing president’s flagship health insurance policy was marred by delays and errors, as well the Scottish farmers’ subsidies disaster, where almost 20,000 farmers were not paid their subsidies.

Glasgow City Council leader Frank McAveety said: “We have made it clear to staff that there is no threat to them.

“Officers know that I am not prepared to consider any option for an external contract which does not have protection of jobs, terms and conditions, and pensions, at its very core.”