Council redundancy scheme approved amid concerns
A voluntary redundancy and early retirement scheme for Dundee City Council has been agreed by the policy and resources committee.
- By Brian Allison, local government reporter
- Published in the Courier : 27.04.10
- Published online : 28.04.10 @ 07.24am
This aims to help find £24 million of budget savings over the next three years. However, concerns were expressed by deputations addressing the committee about a detrimental change to the terms on offer to staff and about the impact of staff reductions on public services.
In a report, personnel head Iain Martin writes that chief executive David Dorward and senior managers had met the trade unions to discuss the difficulties which lie ahead in balancing the council's budget over the next three years.
"This is likely to entail a reduction in council jobs," he said. "However, it is hoped that this can be achieved by natural wastage."
Mr Martin said all decisions on applications to leave under the scheme would take account of the financial implications for the council and approval would be subject to the retention of sufficient staff with the skills to provide effective services.
Unison official Arthur Nicoll said the union had been alarmed at a significant change in the conditions of the scheme compared to one in place for the past five years.
He said the number of added years of pensionable service available used to be up to six and two thirds but was now to be a maximum of five after 30 years or more of service.
"This is going to make people feel that their employer (the council) does not value them very much," he said.
He wondered how much of the exercise would come down to nothing more than "a bean counting scenario" about where to apply the job cuts in order to save the most money while only thinking about the consequences for services later.
Mr Nicoll said the original draft of the voluntary scheme had included a reference to compulsory redundancies. Although that had been removed, people were worried that it might be brought back in the future.
John McAllion spoke to the committee on behalf of the Dundee Pensioners' Forum. He said they supported Unison because of the effect the financial cuts could have on council services, especially for the elderly.
Nasty iceberg
"There is a fear that this could be the tip of a much nastier iceberg that might only emerge after the General Election," he said.
SNP administration leader Ken Guild said he could give the unions an assurance that there was no intention to introduce compulsory redundancies.
Mr Dorward said the previous scheme had been discretionary and, although the maximum number of added years was six and two thirds, he could count on the fingers of one hand how many people actually got that.
He was frank in admitting that the new scheme, which is also discretionary, had reduced the maximum added years to five "because we can't afford to pay a higher level."
Mr Dorward assured the committee that the council would not allow staff to go if it would mean the level of service available in a particular department was not sufficient.
It was not possible to say how much would be saved through the scheme because they did not know how many people would apply and how many could be allowed to go.
Questions about the scheme were asked by several councillors in a debate lasting around an hour but eventually it was approved unanimously.
