Kirklees Council announces compulsory redundancies

May 19 2010 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THOUSANDS of Kirklees Council staff have been warned that compulsory redundancies are on the cards.

The council is in the middle of reducing its workforce from 11,200 to 9,700.

Kirklees decided on the 13% cut in the level of non-school staff to deal with the public spending cuts which are widely expected from central Government.

The council had hoped to make the reduction through voluntary redundancies only.

But yesterday Kirklees chief executive Rob Vincent wrote to all staff telling them to expect 140 compulsory job losses.

He said: “We will limit the need for compulsory redundancy but I’m afraid that we will not be able to avoid it entirely.

“We have written to the trade unions to warn them that we believe we face a risk of 140 compulsory redundancies.”

The council’s director of human resources Cliff Stewart told the Examiner that the criteria for compulsory redundancies were being negotiated with the trade unions and that workers affected would lose their jobs in the autumn.

Mr Stewart said the council had sent out the letters yesterday after the new coalition Government announced its spending plans.

He said: “We’ve been waiting for confirmation from central Government about the size of the challenge facing us. Our estimates have been borne out by this week’s announcement from George Osborne.”

Mr Stewart explained that some workers would not be made redundant.

“We won’t let go of people in positions which are hard to recruit,” he said.