Pledge to minimise Fife Council compulsory redundancies
Fife Council's depute leader has insisted compulsory redundancies will be kept to the "absolute minimum."
Fife Council's headquarters in Glenrothes.
- By Craig Smith
- Published in the Courier : 08.06.10
- Published online : 08.06.10 @ 06.08pm
The council is taking action as part of plans to reduce its budget by almost £120m over the next four years, with around 1800 jobs expected to be shed before the end of March.
Councillor Elizabeth Riches, said, "We've been speaking to employees for some time about the budget challenge ahead of us and the need to reduce our workforce, which we estimate we will have to be by around 10-15% by 2014...
"There will be a reduction in the number of our employees, but on a planned basis and at a controlled pace so we can continue to deliver our priorities and secure the future of essential services for the people of Fife.
"We don't expect reductions at the scale and speed that has been reported in some places, but in an average year we would usually see about 1600 people leaving jobs at the council.
"By careful examination of which of these vacant posts have to be filled we can go some way to achieving the required reductions.
"We've been planning for this financial challenge for some time, and we'll meet it not just by changing our workforce but also by implementing more efficient ways of delivering services and changing how we work and spend our money.
"We've always said we will keep compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum. We hope that by becoming more efficient in a variety of ways they won't be necessary but, in an uncertain financial climate, we can't totally rule them out."
She said workforce change plans for each council service will be critical in ensuring the impact of staffing cuts on frontline services is minimised.
"These plans will be finalised by December and set out the number of people and skills we'll need to meet the community's greatest needs in the future. They will guide whose requests to leave or change their work patterns can be granted," she said.
"We are keeping the workforce and trades unions fully involved and informed as plans become clearer."
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