Union hits out at 'bizarre' Shropshire Council plan to make staff work from home
A union has hit out at Shropshire Council's "bizarre" money-saving plan to make staff work from home one day a month.
The local authority is also proposing to shut all council buildings on a Friday at noon and staff will work on a 'mobile basis'.
GMB, which represents local council workers, has requested an urgent meeting about the plans.
Stuart Richards, GMB senior organiser for public services, said the proposals had not been raised with them before their announcement.
He said: "This bizarre move by Shropshire Council comes completely out of the blue. There has been no consultation or discussion with trade unions and no one has an idea as to what this would actually mean for staff or how it would practically work.
“GMB has requested an urgent meeting with the council to try and understand what on earth they are doing here. We’ll be consulting our members closely on what steps we'll be taking in response.
"Following the financial collapse of Northamptonshire County Council, we've seen councils adopt increasingly desperate measures to cope with the Tory government's austerity cuts that have seen services cut to the bone."
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In an email sent to staff on Thursday morning, Shropshire Council chief executive, Clive Wright, said he had been asked by the council's cabinet to enforce a spending freeze.
He said that the council, which is facing an overspend of £6.9 million, will be asking staff to work from home on the last Friday of every month, beginning in November.
The letter went on to say that from January 2019, the council will enforce a closure of all buildings at noon on Friday.
Mr Wright is also asking staff to consider the cost to the environment of printing documents and is urging them to become more aware.
The cost of printing to the council is £300,000 per year, with more than 1.5 million copies being made. The amount of printing done at the council is being monitored.
The authority is predicting that the main overspend will come in children’s services, at just more than £3 million.
It also expects to overspend in adult services, place, commercial services, finance, governance and assurance, workforce and transformation and public health.
