26.11.18
Council spends £5m on redundancy pay-outs as more than 130 staff leave
A total of 138 council workers have been made redundant by Bath and North East Somerset Council, which has led to pay-outs totalling £4.75m.
Requiring savings of £7.1m savings in 2018-19, the staffing redundancies will create annual savings of £4.28m for the council, but will cost the council £4.75m over a two-year period in redundancy payments.
The redundancies are part of a pledge made by the council in December last year to cut its wage bill to preserve frontline services and reduce its workforce by 300 in order to deliver its 2018-2020 budget.
The council approved a further £8m worth of staff savings in February this year, bringing its total savings related to staff to £11m.
A report from Bath and Somerset Council’s Resources Scrutiny Panel revealed that, to date, there have been 138 voluntary and compulsory redundancies.
Under the plans, two-thirds of the positions of the total positions to go will be cut during this financial year.
Some staff are excluded from the council’s savings target because they work on the front line as social workers, refuse collectors, frontline staff in heritage services, and crematorium assistants.
One strategic management director has been made redundant so far, along with two divisional director roles and seven heads of service from the senior management level.
They will receive £928,000 in redundancy pay-outs over two years, and Bath and North East Somerset Council will save £836,000 a year.
The council’s Resources Scrutiny Panel will assess the progress made on the savings at a meeting later on in the week and “start to re-focus the council and to realise the required savings.”
Image credit - George Clark
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