Council Jobs to Go -10% Staff Saving Needed

PasturesNew

A local authority says it needs to reduce staffing costs by 10% - with some of its 4,500 workforce to be offered voluntary redundancy.

Denbighshire council is consulting on plans to save an estimated £5.7m over the next two financial years.

It says council office accommodation could also be cut back.

Acting Chief Executive, Alan Evans, said: "We are doing everything within our power to minimise the impact on our services and our staff."

He added: "The situation facing Denbighshire is far from unique - other local authorities are looking at similar schemes.

"We need to be mindful of the tight financial settlements not only this year, but also in future years."

The staffing proposals are initially focusing on support services.

Staff are being offered three options: a reduction in hours, flexible retirement and voluntary redundancy.

The council has said it is also looking at reducing its core office accommodation, in the hope that it will result in more efficient and flexible ways of working, whilst reducing the costs of running buildings.
The council has said the savings are needed because of the financial settlement from the Welsh Assembly Government and the current economic climate.
A deadline of 5 January has been set for "expressions of interest", after which a review of the situation will be carried out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/7780260.stm

Nice, secure jobs.

Gorgeous_George

They'll be recruiting a personnel team to make the redundancies.

GG

Cat695

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

They'll be recruiting a personnel team to make the redundancies.

GG

Certainly sounds like any council....hire people to sack other people, very cost cutting

Thomas99

About time the Public sector felt the pain others in real jobs are feeling.

olly300

Thomas99 wrote: »

About time the Public sector felt the pain others in real jobs are feeling.

Council jobs have never been safe as they can easily be outsourced, made temporary or the staff can be restructured.

All through my life I've know teachers who have lost their jobs due to "restructuring".

In my local council and the two councils near me the bin men are outsourced from the same company, and all the people who have anything to do with parking control from the attendants to the administrators work for another company.

Another local council in London has about 50% of it's admin staff employed as temporary workers so they don't need to pay them pensions.

If your really want to cut public sector jobs then you need to cut jobs in the NHS - the biggest employer in Europe after all we need less doctors, nurses, porters, pharmacists, radiologists .............

Davesnave

Thomas99 wrote: »

About time the Public sector felt the pain others in real jobs are feeling.

What a wonderfully crass and cheap comment!

Ironically, here are many in the front line of local services who'd agree that there's room for some pruning further up, especially among those who never get their hands dirty. Unfortunately, however, everyone is lumped together when simplistic comments like yours are made, encouraging an increasingly disrespectful public to denigrate those who serve, instead of being thankful that someone still cares.

Lotus-eater

Slightly OT, but along the same lines.

What is happening to those councils and Police forces that had money in Icesave? Haven't heard anything about it for a while and tried searching on Google and couldn't find an answer.

wintersunshine

Davesnave wrote: »

What a wonderfully crass and cheap comment!

Ironically, here are many in the front line of local services who'd agree that there's room for some pruning further up, especially among those who never get their hands dirty. Unfortunately, however, everyone is lumped together when simplistic comments like yours are made, encouraging an increasingly disrespectful public to denigrate those who serve, instead of being thankful that someone still cares.

But Davesnave you thanked a post on another thread that said a recession was a good thing! Sadly, in recessions people lose their jobs in all sectors:o.

seven-day-weekend

I worked for a Local Authority in various posts for nearly 20 years.

THROUGHOUT that time they were 'shedding' staff in one way or another - either by not replacing someone who leaves, making a post part-time or temporary when a full-time worker leaves, dividing one job up amongst several existing staff when someone leaves - there have always been staff-cutting exercises.

Although I must admit when I left my three day a week post (part-time by my request) a full-time replacement was appointed. However, my post was always meant to be full-time- they just never recruited the other half of my jobshare when I requested the part-time hours - so that I did a full-time job in three days. Very efficient, me!

PasturesNew

wintersunshine wrote: »

But Davesnave you thanked a post on another thread .

I can't believe anybody keeps notes!

Davesnave

wintersunshine wrote: »

But Davesnave you thanked a post on another thread that said a recession was a good thing! Sadly, in recessions people lose their jobs in all sectors:o.

Glad to see you take so much interest in what I say, even if you don't understand it all.

My post above clearly suggests that cuts in the public sector can be made and economic circumstances will dictate that they should. There's no reason at all why public sector jobs shouldn't go. My objection is simply to people who love to put the boot into public servants, as if they're some kind of harijans who deserve low status.

So far as previous posts go, it was only a week or two ago that I told a newly qualified teacher that she might expect class sizes of 40 or so before too long, like we used to have back in the 70s.

Yes, the recession is a good thing, in the sense that it will now force the country to re-examine where it is going. If it had been allowed to happen naturally a few years ago, when the rest of the world was still buoyant, it would have been far less damaging, but what's done is done. Just because it will bring unpleasantness, probably on a scale unseen in most of our lifetimes, the alternative, unchecked borrowing and an economy built on sand, was unsustainable. Best get it over with.