Union chief Kevin Grant says the Budget should concentrate on building the economy — not cutting jobs.

Mr Grant — president of white collar union the BPSU — added that a multimillion pound cutback programme that involved the loss of hundreds of Civil Service jobs “would cause more problems than it would solve.”

And he called for a plan to deal with the looming pensions deficit crisis as baby boomers prepare for retirement.

Mr Grant was speaking yesterday as Finance Minister Bob Richards prepares to unveil his first full Budget tomorrow — with cutbacks likely to exceed the $65 million recommended by the SAGE Commission for the first year of a three-year programme of public spending reductions.

Experts also predicted that the size of the Civil Service would be trimmed — by perhaps as many as 500 from the public sector’s 5,500-strong workforce.

But Mr Grant, whose union represents many public servants, said: “Most people just want to make sure there will be initiatives so they can look for job security.

“We need to make sure we have got this back working and that any plan put out there is not just a plan which will cause job cuts.”

He added: “We need to concentrate on increasing revenue — there’s so much about people talking about we need cuts here, we need cuts there — we need to see this country starting to come out of this recession.

“There is a small light some of the economists are seeing right now, and we see companies being registered here.

“But there are still people out there suffering. Many of my members call me because they are struggling and in meetings with other trade unions. I know there are large amounts of people still struggling.”

Mr Grant said: “There isn’t going to be any money falling out of the sky, but we need to put a plan in place to help this country recover.”

He added he was not against continuing tax concessions for struggling sectors like retail and the restaurant trade.

“I am not opposed to making sure that we have a plan in place to invite international business into this country because we need to get jobs going.”

Mr Grant added: “One of the bigger issues is not just the need to grow revenue — we also need to address the pension issue. Whatever plan the Minister puts in place, we need to address this.”

And he said: “Mr Richards said he would be more aggressive than SAGE — but he also said the SAGE report is not a prescription, it’s a recommendation.

“I am hoping that, when he starts talking about being more aggressive, he looks at the lower-hanging fruit — not job cuts.

“You start cutting 500 jobs, that’s 500 more people going on financial assistance.

“Workers working is what’s going to turn this country around. We need to look at things in a different way.”

Chris Furbert, president of the blue collar BIU did not respond to requests for comment.