WORKERS could be forced out of their jobs as a cuts programme enters its second year.
Kirklees Council this week agreed its budget for 2012/13 – which included continuing the Innovations and Efficiencies Programme.
The cost-cutting exercise is expected to cost 2,000 jobs as officials struggle to cope with the public spending squeeze.
Some 1,000 positions have gone in the first year of the programme.
On Wednesday night councillors passed the Kirklees budget for next year which will see the workforce fall by another 676, from a full-time equivalent of 13,057 to 12,381.
The remaining 400 jobs are due to go between 2013 and 2015.
A council spokesman said last night that some workers may have to be forced to leave.
“We will work for voluntary redundancies as far as possible but we can’t rule out compulsories,” he said.
There was more bad news for Kirklees staff yesterday as the Local Government Association announced that 1.6m council workers across the country will suffer a pay freeze for the third year running.
GMB spokesman Brian Strutton said his union would consult its members over industrial action if employers refused to go to arbitration.
“The politicians who lead local councils are a disgrace to the workforces they employ for offering no pay rise for the third consecutive year while feathering their own nests,” he said.
