450 more jobs to go at City of York Council

THE axe is hanging over up to 650 council jobs in York – more than three times the number originally feared.




Between 400 and 450 posts are set to be lost at City of York Council over the next four years, on top of the 200 positions the authority is already shedding, meaning its workforce could shrink by almost ten per cent.



The council, which employs about 7,000 people, needs to save £50 million by 2015, but trade union chiefs say the news is the realisation of their “worst expectations” and believe compulsory redundancies are inevitable.



Staff at the council were informed of the news yesterday afternoon, and a senior source said the level of savings needed to achieve the council’s More For York target savings would not be possible without compulsory redundancies.



Chief executive Kersten England said: “Previously, we had calculated that to make £15 million of efficiency savings, it was likely there would be a reduction of 200 posts.”



“Now that it looks probable we will have to achieve savings over the next four years of £50 million, we believe the scale of reduction in posts will be in proportion to this larger saving.



“We await the detailed settlement for York in the first week of December and so no accurate figures can be produced at this stage. But it is likely that about 400 to 450 additional posts will need to be deleted to achieve the savings targets between 2011 and 2015.”



In an email to staff, she said compulsory redundancies would be avoided “wherever possible”.



The exact number of job losses will not emerge until next month when the council discovers the size of its Government funding settlement.



Heather McKenzie, the Unison union’s branch secretary at the council, said: “We knew the hit was going to be bad and we’re concerned this could even be an underestimate.



“We have been working with the efficiency programme as it stood, with 200 post reductions being identified, and a lot of this has been mitigated through not filling vacancies or people moving to other jobs.



“But we have reached the point where it will become increasingly difficult to mitigate against compulsory redundancies. With this level of cuts, it’s hard to see how we can avoid that.



“It’s a really grave situation, not only for our members, but also the public and the services they rely on. Morale is low, people are concerned about the future and it is a very stressful time.



“We must also be aware we could end up in an even worse position and guard against this.



“We have a commitment from the authority to work with us to mitigate against job losses to the greatest extent possible, and there is the will to do this. But the scale is so huge that it’s hard to imagine how there will not be a substantial amount of damage.”



The council expects to lose 28 per cent of its Government grant over the next four years, including 10.7 per cent in 2011/12 alone.