public service worries

herbily

The local authority I work for is letting one-third of its non-teaching staff go - teachers are protected, nothing else is. In addition, every single one of its contracts with the voluntary sector is under review, and the presumption is that the majority won't be renewed. The local voluntary sector are trying to insist that they be given three months' notice (in some cases it's in their contracts) but in a lot of cases they don't know at the moment if there will be any grant come the start of the new financial year. I don't think this is a unique situation to our LA - would love to tell you that I think children's services/ teenage mums etc will have their services protected, but I don't think anything's safe.

At the moment, they've "re-sized" the managerial levels, and everything's in chaos as new managers are having to get to grips with services they've never dealt with before. Staff are all filling in forms to apply for their old jobs back - redundancy packages here are statutory minimum, so no one's rushing towards a pay-off. (Do I sound depressed? Because I am.)

sunshinejoclaire

Hobbit56 wrote: »

Hi = the employer cant impose 4 days unpaid annual leave that is a change to your terms and conditions and has to be negotiated according to your T&Cs or else you can sue them for breach of contract via your union!

Wrong - it can if it has been agreed via collective bargaining with the Unions, which it appears it has in that poster's case.

natman

sunshinejoclaire wrote: »

Wrong - it can if it has been agreed via collective bargaining with the Unions, which it appears it has in that poster's case.

Yes Sunshine, you are correct -

This was the initial message from the Employer -

In an attempt to save jobs within the authority, the trade unions were able to sign a collective agreement with the Council to amend the terms and conditions of employment. A letter has been sent to every employee notifying you of the changes which will come into effect from 1 April 2011.

Thanks for being so interactive with your posts.

lady1964

Hi,
I work for a County Council in the Connexions part and funding for our service has been removed by the Government - £7 million. As Connexions is in the main Integrated Youth Service, there is a restructure happening with the majority of redundancies occuring in the part I work in. We found this out just before Xmas, it was then 'called in' then not, today's news says meetings will be held later in the month & we are strongly advised to attend, then we will have individual meetings with our line manager. We think that's when our 90 days consultation begins, with us all being gone by the end of the academic year.
Connexions is a young peoples' service and as well as working in schools and centres with 13-19 year olds, NEETS and other vulnerable young people, we also take up slack that Social Services can't, ie help homeless young people find housing and other support network/agencies to help them.
Our concern is of course for our jobs but also for these vulnerable young people and who will help them when we aren't there to. Our feeling is crime and teenage pregnancy will rise, as will unemployment in the under 21 age group, EMA has already gone/going soon, tuition fees are going up, young people are being hit in many ways.
I've been in my job for 5 years so will get some redundancy, but I'm also in my mid 40's so worried about finding another job, although I'm lucky and as a household, we don't rely on my salary for the bills, mortgage etc, however my colleagues are not so fortunate and it's a very worrying time.

ceridwen

Presumably the Union that agreed to bargain away 4 days pay from their members :eek: only agreed for those who are higher-paid - but the lower-paid staff will still receive their salary in full?

MumOf2

There are very senior university academics who are under threat at the moment - people who gave their life to teaching students, research, running courses, writing text books, lecturing internally, nationally and internationally, teaching in developing countries, etc. etc. The unions are so against management and they see professors as being 'management'. It's a dreadful situation at the moment at universities - teachers may be protected in the compulsory education sector but not in tertiary.

MumOf2

foxgloves

I work for a LA which is saving money by making 3000 staff (from 10,000 workforce) redundant. We have strongly been advised to take VR as terms & conditions regarding this are set to change next financial year (to save more money) and we have been warned that the new redundancy packages will be about half what they are now. My partner & I both work in the same service area. He's full time & I'm part time. If I take VR, his job is fractionally safer. I'd like to do this in many ways as the now v right-wing authority we now work for, is starting to be one not many ethical community-based professionals want to work for. But at the same time, ideals are all very well, we all need an income. I've spent this morning working on a budget based on just my partner's income. It's doable but would be tight. We grow a lot of veg, could grow more and I'm very old-style in terms of cooking from scratch & household economies. Redundancy pay would mean getting rid of the last bits of old debt so at least we'd be debt-free and I'm now very good at budgetting (used to be world's worst!) We'd have to go down to one car but I wouldn't have a problem with that as am quite green & could cycle locally. With all the public sector cuts & uncertainty, there must be so mnay other people sitting poring over budget spreadsheets trying to work out what to do for the best. To be honest, I'm so sick of stressing about it that I'm feeling more inclined to 'jump' & see what fate brings me. Worst case scenario would be me taking VR then partner not getting one of the remaining jobs, so I'm not being too hasty. What trying times these are. The level of cuts in the authority I work for are bigger than they needed to be as v Tory council has decided to use the opportunity to cut services to the bone anyway. Horrible times. The public will only wake up to the impact of this when it's far too late.

nimbo

I do so love it when they reinvent the term redundant, re sized....

ha-ha.

I can't really complain last year we started half way through the year, and the chief execs and union worked really closely together - when the chief exec delivered the news in a group meeting she looked really gutted.

we have a talk scheduled next week with the deputy chief exec who put in for voluntary last time round and got turned down on grounds of cost... - makes me laugh they'll have to let him go at some point????? It’ll cost them as much as it would have last year - but if he's been allowed to go it would have saved 3 other jobs...

18 to go this year - 3 from our team of 14, 2 on my band and one on the band above... but I honestly don't know how we'll manage with the work - as after people left last time the work was just divvied out, and we all had to manage... it's great we all come in earlier and/or leave later that little bit more frazzled. But what do you do coz if the work stops getting done then you'll be for the chop...

badmumof1

Chief Execs of councils mmmmh interesting how their jobs, pay and pensions are always safe from cuts whoops sorry we are TOLD they are called savings.
Im a firm believer in trimming the tree from the top and not from the bottom.
Cuts can be made not necessary to as they see it front line services but to me these are classed as LIFELINE services.
Organisations such as SureStart, Conexions, C.A.B, Womens refuge, car sharing schemes, PCSO's and many more are all lifeline services which should not be faced by cuts when the Chief Exec is sat on her/ his big fat salary, car and pension.
They may say oh im sorry but you job will have to go but hell will freeze over before they mean it.

I_luv_cats

How can councils save money from day one if they make staff redundant with associated severance pay etc. or give early retirement and that'll mean early ongoing pension costs!!!

It could mean more sickness as the staff left struggle to cope / get stressed out with the extra workload of redundant colleagues!!!

The local economy could suffer with less money swishing around!!

There will be more money shelled out on working age benefit payments.

My council has put up leisure centre prices by up to 70% so perhaps that will put people off, people will get unhealthier and cost the NHS more!!!