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More jobs to go as council faces further £20m cuts
NEW BLOW ... for South Tyneside Council.
MORE Town Hall jobs will go next year as South Tyneside Council faces a further £20m funding blow.
The grim news was delivered by chief executive Martin Swales as Government-imposed cash cuts continue to bite.
The fresh hardship follows £35m of cutbacks during this financial year, and the loss of more than 1,500 jobs over the last 18 months.
And a borough union leader said the latest announcement would “bring more misery for council workers.”
Mr Swales pledged that Town Hall bosses will make every attempt to minimise the impact of the cuts, but admitted further jobs will have to go in the next financial year beginning in April, with workers again being invited to apply for voluntary redundancy.
He said: “While the central government’s ongoing grant settlements to local authorities tackles the national deficit, this will result in less funding for South Tyneside.
“After meeting inflationary and contractual pressures, we have forecast the need to make a minimum of £20m worth of savings from next year’s budget.
“Over the last 18 months we have been systematically reviewing all our services to look at new, more efficient ways of working. We have made significant savings through revised procurement and commissioning of services; reduced management costs; and are working more closely with partners to share resources wherever possible.
“Inevitably, given the scale of the challenge, we have no choice but to make further reductions in staff numbers.
“We remain committed to making these reductions through voluntary means wherever possible. By continuing our stringent management of vacancies, we will do everything we can to minimise the number of staff leaving the council through redundancy.”
Merv Butler, branch secretary of Unison South Tyneside, said: “These cuts will bring more misery for council workers and put more services at risk. We are expecting to start discussing the details with the council over the next few weeks.
“We will continue to oppose any proposed compulsory redundancies and support members who wish to apply for the voluntary redundancy scheme.”
Any borough employee who applies for redundancy this time round can expect a less generous payoutn than previous deals, although council chiefs say the new union-agreed scheme is “the best that can be agreed” in harsh financial times.
In a statement released to the 6,200-strong workforce, Mr Swales added: “In May this year the voluntary redundancy scheme, which offered a maximum of 60 weeks’ salary ended and I promised to keep you informed of any new developments. The position that our Human Resources Committee have approved for next year is a revised enhanced redundancy scheme of a maximum of 45 weeks’ pay dependent upon an employee’s age and length of service.
“We have been discussing new enhanced redundancy arrangements with the trade unions for some time. Although this scheme is not as generous as the previous one, both the council and the unions acknowledge that it is higher than the statutory minimum of 30 weeks’ entitlement and the best that can be agreed in such challenging financial circumstances.
“As the council is facing further budget challenges next year, we are again inviting applications for early retirement and voluntary redundancy.
“It is important that we maintain our clear sense of direction and over the next few months elected Members will be considering our budget options following extensive public consultation.
“We are operating in challenging financial times, but by working together I firmly believe we can continue to improve outcomes for the communities of South Tyneside.”
paul.kelly@northeast-press.co.uk
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Comments
There are 20 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
wellsfargo
Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 10:05 PMIf the comments by "rest your case" are true that highly paid posts are being created without the proper procedures being in place then why are the union representatives not knocking on the Chief Executives Office door and demanding answers. After all present employees who may receive compulsory redundancy notices under the next axe to fall on jobs are paying their union dues to have the protection of their unions. Neither the Chief Executive with the backing of a. LABOUR CONTROLLED Council should be able to implement procedures which are against rules laid down to see that jobs are advertised in the correct manner to get the best person for the job. It appears that the principles on which the Labour Party was founded are totally ignored by this Labour Controlled Council when it suits their needs. It is HYPOCRITICAL.
Mr Monkey
Monday, October 31, 2011 at 07:42 PMI wonder how much our poor Council has contributed to the purchase of the Leaders brand new 61 Registration Mercedes. Another perfect example of our Leader laughing down his nose at his subjects.........................AUSTERITY IAIN ?
hayley4315
Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 12:32 AMabout time some of the middle and senior management got the chop, seems to me council is top heavy with chiefs relastive to indians, still turkeys wont vote for xmas.
bohemianblogger
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 01:01 AM@wasthatthatguy, part time jobs, yes that woul;d be a great thing, more people could retain their jobs and workload shared between them, rather than piling extra work on people left after others are made redundant. Moving central Government admin jobs up here, such as Longbenton, fantastic idea. Everyone knows we are an economic blackspot, that idea would definately boost our prospects and local economy, give people more jobs and encourage more private business for those extra workers to spend their wages :)
onyourcase
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 03:53 PMGiven the scale of the cuts already made and those to come how can this Council justify a Chief Executive and a team of top Directors and a raft of third tier Heads of this and that all on exorbitant salaries. The Council managed before wtihout a Chief Executive so let's do it again. What about all the so-called consultants and advisers brought in on the payroll on short-term contracts. And what about appointments made to being made to specially-created high-level posts which are not advertised and do not follow the correct recruitment prodedures. As usual it is the Indians who get the chop while the Chiefs stay safe in their ivory toweres surrounded by a bunch of favoured cronies. Many of those at the top seem to come to get a good line on their CV and then move one before their mistakes catch up with them.
Mr Monkey
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 12:50 PMThe £100,000 plus that they wasted in the American courts to try and find Mr Monkey would come in handy now ?
wasthatthatguy
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 12:00 PMThe moderators must be on their lunch break. Apart from going on about part-time work, I was saying the most likely source of an increase in jobs in the NE is via the Government locating more Central Government admin jobs there, like Longbenton etc.
wasthatthatguy
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 11:00 AMPending Moderation
Scunnered
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 10:34 AMHow much was spent buying Brigantine, General Havelock, Commando, Shields Gazette. land for BT call centre etc. They make the European Parliament look prudent
Planning Portal
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 08:23 AMThe rich Southern councils will get richer while the poorer Northern councils will get poorer. Well done to all those people that voted for the ConDems. Says it all. Well done lads.
walkerchris
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 07:56 AMI've said it before... if we lived in a marginal seat or had a Tory council we wouldn't be suffering such massive cuts. The coalition has nothing to lose by kicking the North East when we're down. And as for the Labour run council and absent MP (I've been thinking of marketing a 'Where's Milly?' book for Xmas) - all they can do is blame the Government instead of setting an example. I think it's about time we took to the Town Hall steps with some tents.
biggreenvanman
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 07:54 AMI can't agree more with most of the comments here.... get rid of some of the top brass first, as they MUST be on more than £100,000 each... compared to the more modest £12-£17k of the people they wish to cut.... it would make more sense wouldn't it? But, like most companies who are trying to cut back, they'll start at the bottom and work their way up!
wasthatthatguy
Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 01:54 AMRe “Inevitably, given the scale of the challenge, we have no choice but to make further reductions in staff numbers." Why can't the Council and the unions and the workers agree that all staff will work part-time, eg 3 or 4 days a week? Is it because the "executives" and the union "bosses" don't want to do that for 60% or 80% of their existing salary?
wellsfargo
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 11:21 PMWhy not lead by example. All councillors take a cut in their expenses. When you look at husbandwife teams of councillors the expenses they claim are breathtaking. Individual councillors are being paid hundreds of pounds per month. The Mayor attended a function in Hebburn last Friday night and the Mayoral car turned up to whisk him away home. Surely in these times of austerity items such as the Mayoral car should go before one redundancy is considered? Do we really need consultants and their exorbitant costs when we employ highly paid Council officials? Why not get rid of the Chief Executive and split his responsibilities between the upper echelon of the highly paid staff. When Governments hand out money which they do not have and borrow to make up the short fall as the last Government did then someone must suffer and it is never the politicians but the working man. My feelings go out to Council workers who must be losing sleep over their futures. Mortages, bills and the basics of life must be paid for but how can they when they have no job. The problems here are deeper than what effects South Tyneside Council. It is sheer greed on a vast scale in International banking and incompetent politicians who cannot see the wood for the trees. What is the answer as with a lack of natural resources and an exploding population I think we are rapidly heading towards a Third World country status.
marcussmod
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 07:22 PMI agree with Sless, most of those going will be low paid workers doing front line jobs yet the 100K + pen pushers will remain.
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