Shropshire Council workers face jobs deadline

Thousands of workers were e-mailed yesterday to inform them they can apply to leave, with only school staff not offered the deal.

Shropshire Council bosses have offered those considering taking an exit package a financial incentive to go as soon as possible.

The offer, based on Government guidelines, means that if they go before the end of this year, their pension payments will be based on the terms and conditions they were employed on before changes came into force in October 2011.

Council leader Keith Barrow said now is the best time to go for workers who are considering leaving.

"The changes in terms and conditions have been pretty rough on staff and we are being as fair to them as we can in the circumstance we find ourselves in," he said.

"If anyone does choose to go, now would be the best time for them.

"If they go next year their pension would be based on their salary following their new terms and conditions. If they go now it will be based on their earnings before that."

The proposals represent the council's first-ever major voluntary redundancy programme.

A union leader said today that the plan was yet another blow for council staff who have already endured pay cuts and changes to their terms and conditions in recent years.

Rick Tudor, regional organiser for Unison in the West Midlands, said: "They did tell the staff that slashing the terms and conditions and cutting their pay was designed to avoid redundancies."

But he said that he believed there have already been hundreds of redundancies at the council since the first tranche of the changes came into place during autumn 2011.

Mr Tudor said the union would be looking at the proposals in detail before deciding on its next step.

"The concern for us is if they are talking about sizeable redundancies, what does that mean for services that people are paying their council tax for?" he said.

"It is not good news for our members. Our major concern is for our members and the services our members provide. We need to look at the proposals in detail.

"None of this was mentioned in the pre-election time. The cynic in me would say they knew this was going to happen."

He added that the decision was being made on the back of large Government cuts being imposed on local authorities.

"Local government had been targeted by this Government. Our members do vital work in the community," he said.

Mr Tudor said he was concerned about the impact of the changes on the local economy.

No one from the GMB union, which also represents workers at Shropshire Council, was available for comment.

The plans for widespread redundancies at the council also came under fire today from Councillor Alan Mosley, leader of the Labour group on Shropshire Council.

He said the job cuts will hit the local economy as more skilled jobs are lost.

"This is appalling news and a further nail in the coffin of Shropshire Council and the vital services it provides for Shropshire people," he said.

"There appears to be no planning, consultation or thought about the impact on staff morale and the delivery of services.

"It will be a further body blow to the Shropshire economy and efforts to promote jobs and economic growth."

Councillor Roger Evans, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Shropshire Council, said the move would hit staff morale.

He expressed concern about what standard of workforce the authority will be left with after the redundancies take effect, as well as querying how many staff will be required to go.

Councillor Evans said remaining staff are being put under increasing pressure to do more work to make up for that done by colleagues who have left the authority.

"Is this the best way to create the workforce that we and Shropshire residents need and should expect?" he said.

"How many redundancies will be needed and will these ever be enough?

"Yet again the morale of the workforce which was already very low is being pushed down more.

"Expertise is already in short supply with the more able being asked to do more and more.

"A number of officers whose expertise I and others valued have left.

"We have in the past been known for the quality and experience of our staff. We were a four-star authority a few years ago and everyone took a pride in what was offered.

"Now some wonder if we would get one star, not because of poor staff but because of the amount of work each worker still here is being told they must do."

The voluntary redundancy programme is due to run until early September, with bosses aiming to make decisions by the end of that month.

Payouts to staff for taking redundancy will be based on age, salary and length of service.

The council is aiming to make the savings in the current financial year, meaning that everyone whose request is approved will leave by the end of March next year.

Staff have been told that workers employed in "key areas" may have their requests to take redundancy turned down if it is judged that the authority cannot afford to lose their expertise.

It comes shortly after Telford & Wrekin Council bosses said it may have to make further savings of £10 million this year, threatening council jobs and services in the borough.

More than 840 jobs have already gone at the Labour-controlled council in the last three years, with senior management costs being cut by 55 per cent.

Further details of Shropshire Council redundancy plans are likely to be revealed tomorrow at a meeting of the authority's cabinet, where the authority's financial strategy from the years 2014/15 to 2023/24 is to be discussed and put forward for approval.

Papers on what the financial strategy for the council is in the coming years have yet to be made available ahead of the meeting.

Tomorrow's meeting will take place at Shirehall, Shrewsbury from 12.30pm.

Other options on the table for staff include cutting their working hours or taking flexible retirement, in which older workers may request a reduction in their hours or move to a lower graded post and also draw their pension whilst continuing to work.

Those who choose to say have been told the nature of their jobs is likely to change in future as services are redesigned and council moves towards a "commissioning" model, where the authority oversees other organisations delivering services rather than doing it directly.

The plans for the redundancy programme were discussed with trade unions ahead of yesterday's announcement to staff and councillors.

The voluntary redundancy programme comes just days after the council announced it was bringing in a new "zero-budgeting" system as part of a shake-up of how services are run. It means that every department at the authority will start with a budget of zero and have to produce a business case for the amount of funding it needs to run its services, rather than being given a set amount each year.

Finance officers hope the new approach could help reduce some budgets by up to 50 per cent over the coming years.

Councillor Barrow said last week: "We have to reduce the amount the council spends, and we think that making every department justify how much budget they need rather than just giving them a pot of money will help do that.

"It may seem like common sense, but this is actually quite a revolutionary way of working in the public sector, although it is of course commonplace in the business world."