THEY are part of the small army of workers who help ensure our vital public services are delivered day after day.

For those receiving their long-service awards, those days add up to many years of dedication and hard work.

From ensuring our children are fed at school like Rita McCrone to looking after the elderly and disabled at home like Sandra Reilly, without them the city wouldn’t function the way it does.

Often working under difficult and stressful conditions, and never for the highest financial rewards, the staff at Cordia are an essential component of our public sector workforce.

Over the course of their 25 years service the staff will have seen many changes in their employment conditions, the structure of their departments and the pressure piled on the system most recently by year after year of budget cuts.

It is to their credit they have continued to strive for the highest levels of service and display the caring attitude that is reassuring for the people they deal with in their professional manner.

The long-service awards is a fitting way to pay tribute to the years of hard work often during anti-social hours.

Glasgow needs many like them to meets its responsibilities to all our citizens and without them we would be in a far worse situation.

We hope they all enjoy their celebration, they deserve it.