News

100 council jobs to go before next April

By Lewis Rudd
July 29, 2010

One hundred council jobs will be axed before the end of March next year in a bid to make £1.2 million budget savings.

The losses come as part of Wokingham Borough Council’s revised three-year plan to meet cuts called for by the coalition Government.

A total of £700,000 will be saved by the cull, allowing the authority to meet a new target saving of £1.2m for this financial year.

Most of the losses – 92 more than those originally planned in the current year – will come from the

council’s contract management and procurement, strategic support and administration departments.

A number of these have already been lost through the holding of vacant posts, while others will be made redundant through the removal of agency staff and redeploying existing staff.

There will be some compulsory redundancies.

But the union representing workers is examining ways of making cuts without losing 100 posts.

Other plans to save more than £700,000 from internal efficiencies include changes to its car mileage scheme, charging staff and councillors for car parking and targeting reductions in overtime.

Ms Law said: “We are looking to make internal changes that do not impact negatively on residents.

“However, reshaping the council will mean that posts will be lost – and by the end of this year we anticipate reducing the workforce by 100 posts.

“We will also be looking at how we can bring income into the council through sponsorship, for example, and ensuring we improve our procurement practices.

“It is to be expected that people are anxious in times of uncertainty, and people will be anxious about their job and what is going to happen.

“We have to go through a human resources process and period of consultation with those affected and that will happen this year.”

Paul Bee, UNISON Wokingham branch secretary, said its members facing the possibility of job losses are seeking dialogue about the council’s finances, as it is believed savings can be achieved without the need to cut 100 positions.

He said: “The staff briefings have left employees angry and anxious about their future, service delivery and how these cuts will inevitably impact on the local economy.

“We are not surprised that Susan Law has some tough decisions to make as a result of the unnecessary but intentional and ideologically fuelled attacks by the coalition Government on the public sector.

“It seems from the current proposals on the table that it is Wokingham Borough employees who, already facing a two-year pay freeze and are struggling to survive financially because of increased energy, fuel and food costs, are expected to take the most pain and bear the brunt of cutting the deficit created by the banks.

“Low paid workers, who already face pay freezes and job cuts, will now also see their services and household income cut.”

For more on the cuts see this week's Wokingham Times, out now.

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she devil - I assume that the flowers on sponsored roundabouts are paid for by the sponsors and those without sponsors have flowers to encourage sponsorship. Plus they look nice!

RobertY
05/08/2010 at 06:52

The council should think about there spending in other area's such as, why spend lots of money on flowers etc, why do we need flowers on roundabouts etc, grass is just as good, and the wages what can I say, if I was on there wages I would be laughing all the way to the bank. At times I'm sorry to say I work for the WBC, but I'm on the poverty line, trying my best to pay bills etc, and looking after my children. If it was not for us unders the council would not exsist, we are the gophers. Oh forgot what about all the cut back's the poor OAP's are having to go though, at home, residential homes, etc etc etc. What more can I say.

she devil, wokingham
04/08/2010 at 12:58

So 54 staff earn more than £50,000 - not a huge salary in these parts. I would have expected much more. A better breakdown would have been helpful as there is the world of difference between £50,000 and £157,000. In any case, I suspect 54 is a tiny fraction of the total staff employed by WBC. Apart from the staff at Shute End there are 9 secondary schools and over 50 other schools. I would expect the average Headteacher to be earning around £50,000 but obviously not. I remember reading somewhere that the average household income in Wokingham Borough was £54,000 in 2006, with the average individual salary being just under £40,000.

There may well be a handful of WBC staff on comfortable salaries but I suspect from the Wokingham Times figures quoted by Morris that the vast majority earn considerably less than what is the norm in our affluent town.

LarryS
30/07/2010 at 10:10

William - no need for FOI request, Wokingham Times on March 5th 2010 revealed the wages of the top levels of WBC Management. 54 members of WBC earned £50,000 - £160,000 (this doesn't include School staff) and Ms Law's salary, in the last 2 years, has leapt from £134K to £157K.

Morris, Wokingham
29/07/2010 at 21:31

No Larry I'm not sure However perhaps a freedom of information request by an investigtive journalist may let the council taxpayer know exactly how many of the staff are paid salaries in excess of £70000. I think we would see a lot of wriggling as the council tried to justify some of the salaries. We don't need names, salaries and job responsibilities would suffice.

William Richards
29/07/2010 at 18:31

100 staff are facing the axe to make savings but WBC are able to afford a £9million pound investment in Peach Place. Once again a warped sense of values...?

Morris, Wokingham
29/07/2010 at 18:00

As one of the highest paid Council Chief Executives in this country – perhaps it would be prudent for Ms Law to take a salary cut in order to safeguard some of her fellow staff member’s jobs.

To even consider charging Council staff to use the Council car park and make changes to car mileage allowance when fuel costs are so high is extremely insensitive especially for staff who are essential car users.

Ms Law states "We are looking to make internal changes that do not impact negatively on residents" - well in fact a large number of the Council employees are residents of Wokingham (unlike Ms Law who is not). To freeze salaries and make redundancies will have a very negative impact on residents of Wokingham who are currently employed at the Wokingham Borough Council - not to mention the negative impact on local traders who will lose customers because of loss of spending power due to the redundancies.

Wokingham is a very expensive place to live and work and residents get charged very high Council Taxes and will not be happy to see services cut because of redundancies etc.

Ms Law is showing little compassion to her fellow workers in these difficult times and soon employees will lose respect and loyalty for the establishment for which they work. It is not the right way to treat professional, loyal and hardworking employees even if cuts have to be made under instruction from the new Coalition government.

As a closing thought why did Ms Law decide to spend £2million in recent years on a call centre at the Council that is little more than a glorified switchboard? What a waste – so many jobs and services could have been saved by not spending that money.

DA

DA
29/07/2010 at 14:27

Are you absolutely sure that middle managers at the council earn that much? I know quite a few and not one of them earns anything like that.

LarryS
29/07/2010 at 14:07

having reread my comments I see that my maths is flawed, of course it is 100 jobs to save £700000, which still works out at £7,000 per worker. So it would be better to cut 10 middle management jobs paying above £70,000 a year to achieve the savings. After all the council always tell us that they have to pay these large sums to retain these people, if the managers are so good then they will have no trouble finding work in the private sector,after all it would only be ten people. The 100 lower paid workers of course would struggle to find jobs as the job market would be flooded.

William Richards
29/07/2010 at 13:28

So the council are cutting 700 jobs to save £700,000 pounds. This equates to 700 jobs paying an average of £7000 per year, the low paid worker who normally does a good days work for very little money. Now a headline of 70 jobs to go saving £700000 would be more, lets get rid of the inneficient under achieving managers on large salaries, not the lowly worker, who works his/her a*se off.