WARRINGTON Borough Council is forecasting a total of 181 potential redundancies in the coming year, it was announced today.
This is on top of 42 compulsory redundancies which have taken place during the current finance year, which ends on March 31.
Council leader Ian Marks (pictured) said: “Throughout our programme of workforce transformation, we have committed to 
doing everything possible to minimise job losses.
“Any compulsory redundancies are regrettable and very much a last resort. By our officers and the unions working closely together, in 2010/11 we were able to reduce the number of compulsory redundancies to 42.
“We are now planning how to achieve the savings necessary to deliver our Medium Term Financial Plan and have carried out extensive work to forecast our future workforce planning requirements. Through careful management, the number of potential redundancies projected to take place during 2011/12 is 181.”
Cllr Keith Bland, deputy leader of the council and joint chair of the council’s consultative committee with the unions, added: “We have recently received nearly 200 ‘expressions of interest’ in voluntary redundancy.
“These applications will be reviewed during the consultation period for each service redesign. Some of the proposals put forward during service challenge were to achieve cross-cutting savings by doing things like joining up and streamlining our back office functions so that we can realign resources to frontline services.
“Over the next few weeks, we will be identifying the potential for these proposals to deliver further savings.
“We will continue to take proactive steps to reduce the number of compulsory redundancies still further through redeployment, voluntary redundancy and other cost reduction measures. Central to everything will be the concern to minimise the effect on our employees and we will work closely with our workforce and the unions to minimise the impact of any job losses.”
Bob Pinnock, GMB branch secretary and co-chairman of the council’s Joint Consultative Committee, said: “We are facing some of the most difficult financial constraints in recent memory and the challenge is to redesign services within the resources available.
“This situation would have occurred no matter which political party held power and the important thing is that we work together to do everything possible to avoid job losses.
“We recognise that this is not just about the number of jobs, but people’s lives, so we will be ensuring that the whole workforce takes advantage of measures like redeployment, retraining and early retirement and will support them through what will inevitably be some tough times ahead.”
Cllr Marks added: “We have had excellent co-operation from the unions throughout our discussions.”
181 council jobs to go next year
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Former Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Patron Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
17 Comments
VR (Voluntary redundancies) is good for the applicant and the decision-makers, but bad for the town and the council. Usually, the applicants for VR are the most experienced and the most efficient which means that the delivery of services will suffer greatly, which has already happened over the last few years.
IF reduction in the no. of employees is necessary, it should be an opportunity to get rid of the dead wood.
Unfortunately with current employment legislation getting rid of dead wood is often difficult. Faced with such difficulties that is why many businesses, where they could, moved abroad. Big employers are an easy source of compensation for what the dead wood call unfair dismissal. It is very easy to say get rid of the dead wood, in practice it is somewhat more difficult. Effective and demanding management from the outset is the only solution.
Understand what yoursaying but also it gives a chance for fresh ideas and people to step forward. I think WBC has done well and reflects the good management of the Council by the Lib Dems and Cons. If it was in the dark days of Labour the totals would be worse I’m sure. Look at Liverpool and Manchester chasing the headlines and putting fear in staffs minds but also residents. Well done Cllr Marks for sheilding Warrington.
What is very positive is how the Unions and WBC have worked through this together. Just look at other places.
It is unusual to see a Union Branch Secretary accepting reality, well done that man.
Positive for who?
It is unusual for a Union Branch Secretary to be so very compliant with an employer in the face of so many job losses, perhaps there is a piece of dead wood that needs to be removed.
The numbers of job losses are given as, 42 already gone and 181 to go in the coming year but as Cllr Marks states; “Over the next few weeks, we will be identifying the potential for these proposals to deliver further savings……..” so the total of job losses is likely to be a lot higher than the figures given. Now can we have some real ‘transparency’ and a breakdown of exactly which depts these job losses are to be from as an indication of which and how public services are going to be affected. It seems that what Cllr Marks regards as non priority ‘back office’ are regarded as basic frontline services by others. It would make for better and more ethical town management if the ‘ IN THE BACK OFFICE FUNCTIONS’ were cut!
That reps from the union who represent staff are working in a proactive way.
Fully agree – I wonder though if they could work in a proactive way with Labour – I’ve heard not!!!
May be they have just worked well and they know it was Labour and the bad way of running the country that has exposed residents of Warrington.
What is front line that what I would like to be told – Is it answering a phone call or is it processing Cllr Terry O’Neills travel and subs claim????? Sha the way the Lib Dems and Cons have worked to protect roles is very important and nobody can take that away from them.
I TRUST them with running our Town.
If it was Labour a zero would have been on the end of the number 1.
tO GIVE A FIGURE AS 181 PROVES TO ME THAT wbc HAS LOOKED AT ALL ROLES unlike other Labour run councils – Labour simply can’t be trusted – They created a smokescreen just look at the country???
And the Town will agree with you
Reader, you should stop looking at your crystal ball, it is misleading.
How many depts in the Town Hall and how many officers do you deal with. It appears that you are looking at the paint and not the cracks of a crumbling foundation. This lot are no different that the previous lot. It is about self interest rather than the problems of Warrington.
Cut the councillors to ONE per Ward and then I might start thinking that they are “beginning” to do a reasonable job. Until then I will watch the incompetence and in-efficiencies of the counsel and it’s(OUR) employees when dealing with them, and use that as my yardstick.
After the disgraceful way they made promises to the public re the future of Walton Hall and then just minutes later went behind closed doors and unanimously voted to do the opposite I will never trust a word the Lib/ Cons say again!! I would never have believed that standards in public life could have sunk to such a low level!! Reader you can see for yourself just how honest and trust worthy they are by viewing the minutes to the parts of the Exec meeting to which the public were excluded, these were made available when the decision was pulled in to scrutiny.
Good! We could start be the Chief Executive getting a 20% reduction in her salary. Or, indeed, we could get rid of that position altogether! Then, as you say, the number of Councillors could be reduced. The the way the Council is run could be reversed by going back to the Committee System where members of the Public could get involved, getting rid of the Executive Board “clique”. The way Councillors are reimbursed could, again, be returned to the system of years ago where they received only expenses and not a salary (most of them for doing nothing) and we might then get people involved who were genuinely in it to improve our town. Take some “big” reductions with the way OUR Council is run and then we might believe that it really is being run for the benefit of its Council Tax Payers and not a group of people on an ego trip.