Aberdeen council leader: ‘We won’t slash jobs’
Union boss accused of using scare tactics
Published:
TUESDAY, JULY 8: ABERDEEN’S council leader today promised there would be no “massive jobs slash” by the authority in a bid to claw back £27 million in savings.
City Council leader Kate Dean accused union bosses and the Labour opposition of trying to scare the workforce into believing the authority was planning to axe more than 1,000 jobs.
The move came after later editions of the Evening Express yesterday reported claims by T&G Unite union regional organiser Tommy Campbell that more than 1,000 jobs could be axed by the council.
Mr Campbell spoke out after a panel of experts set up to help the council said compulsory redundancies may be “unavoidable”.
Cllr Dean said: “They have just plucked the 1,000 figure out of the air.
“It’s an attempt by the union and Labour group on the council to undermine the workforce and to frighten people. There will be no massive jobs slash and there’s no truth to this claim at all about 1,000 jobs.”
Cllr Dean said there were no plans for compulsory redundancies as part of the council’s controversial £27 million cuts programme.
She said: “We have no plans to do this, but in the longer term, we can’t say what will happen. We want to make efficiency savings and improvements and part of this could be having a smaller workforce.
“But we’d try to do any of this through early retirement or voluntary redundancy.”
Cllr Dean said the council was unlikely to know how many redundancies would be needed for at least three years.
She said that it would not know how many until the council had implemented the changes government watchdog the Accounts Commission had asked for.
Mr Campbell aid: “The figure of 1,000 is a reasonable estimate and if anything, it could be more.
“It’s actually a conservative estimate because the average full time salary on the council is £20,000 and if there were a 1,000 job losses, it would be £20 million of cuts, but they are making £27 million worth.”
The row comes after the council was advised by an expert panel – set up as part of the Accounts Commission recommendations – to put a freeze on recruitment and spending.
The panel, which includes council chief executives Tom Aitchison of Edinburgh, Glasgow’s George Black, Alex Linkston, West Lothian and Gavin Whitfield, North Lanarkshire, also said compulsory redundancies may be “unavoidable”.
The panel was brought in after a damning Accounts Commission report, but it cannot order the council to make changes, only make recommendations.
The experts have advised a review of cash for projects, but Mrs Dean said the panel had not earmarked any specific schemes.
Cllr Dean said: “This is something the budget monitoring board will be looking at. We need to be thinking very carefully about all spending.”
But she said some schemes would need to go ahead to save money.
She said: “Cutting spending on projects such as recycling, could mean having to pay more in landfill tax.”
She said the projects which would be reduced could include some from large one-off schemes and others from annual budgets.
Projects such as the £80.4 million new headquarters at Marischal College would not be affected as demolition has already begun and legal agreements have already been put in place.
But Labour councillor Willie Young said he wanted the Marischal College plan to be shelved.
He said: “We think there should be a freeze on spending on any of these large projects like Marischal College or football stadiums.The wasting of money by the council will just keep getting worse and worse.”
Council deputy leader Kevin Stewart said councillors were working towards having a better-run council at the end of the process.
He said: “The city council has been stating its policy publicly for more than a year that we need to move towards having a smaller, better paid and better motivated workforce.
“Most Scottish local authorities are putting out a similar message.
“No figure has been put on the number of posts which will be shed.
“This is something which the city council will be working through with the trade unions over the coming months.”
Councillor Young said: “The council leadership needs to take responsibility and stop blaming others for its mess.
“The Labour group never said any numbers about redundancies.”
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MONDAY, JULY 7: CRISIS-HIT Aberdeen City Council has been told to slash jobs in a bid to balance the books, it was revealed this afternoon.
A panel of experts brought in to help council has advised compulsory redundancies may be “unavoidable” to make the necessary savings.
The council has also been told to put a freeze on spending and recruitment.
Aberdeen City Council announced a huge swathe of cuts as part of its budget in February this year.
A damning report by the Accounts Commission said a group should be brought in to help the local authority with its finances.
A report of the first meeting with the group, which has been sent out to council employees, said: “A key message from the external support group was that headcount at Aberdeen City Council needed to reduce and that this should be raised explicitly with unions and staff in early course.
“It was suggested that headcount reduction targets would probably need to be set and compulsory redundancies may be unavoidable.”
The panel also recommended stopping spending on projects which the council was not yet legally committed to – even if decisions had already been passed by formal committees. Other options include recruitment freezes and moving more council services into trusts.
Although the council – which employs around 11,000 workers – has not set a number of redundancies which need to be made, unions fear hundreds of staff could go.
North-east representative for the T&G Unite union Tommy Campbell said: “The council is having to make £27 million cuts and the majority of that is having to come from staffing.
“We could be looking at more than 1,000 jobs going.
“It is inevitable that the council is not going to get this sort of number from voluntary redundancies. It is a disgrace it has come to this situation.”
The panel includes council chief executives, Tom Aitchison of Edinburgh, George Black of Glasgow, Alex Linkston of West Lothian, and Gavin Whitefield, of North Lanarkshire.
City council depute leader Kevin Stewart refused to comment on the advice given to the council and said all meetings held with the external support group were confidential.
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