A TOP trade unionist is embarrassed after claiming a ‘clear victory’ over Kirklees Council before negotiations had finished.

Kirklees is in the middle of a cost-cutting programme which will see its non-school workforce drop from 11,200 to 9,700.

Trade union Unison had planned to call a strike ballot in early September to fight any compulsory job losses.

But the vote was postponed for a month after the union reached a memo of understanding with the council.

On Monday Nick Ruff, who chairs the Kirklees branch of Unison, wrote a piece for the Socialist Workers Party claiming victory.

The article, which appeared on the party’s website on Tuesday, said that Kirklees “has now stated there will be no compulsory redundancies for six months.

“It has also been forced to withdraw its proposals to cut redundancy pay, attack the redeployment agreement and to use sickness records to select people for redundancy.

“The council is also offering six months’ pay, in addition to redundancy payments, for those who wish to leave.

“Taken together this is clearly a victory for the unions.”

When the Examiner contacted the council about Mr Ruff’s article yesterday, a spokesman said his claims were “misleading, inaccurate and unhelpful.”

But Mr Ruff explained that he sent the piece to the Socialist Workers Party before a negotiating session with Kirklees officials on Monday.

He said: “That was our understanding of what was on offer at the time I sent the article. But the situation has changed and we’re going to have a further meeting on Friday.

“It’s very embarrassing for me and hopefully we can get this all sorted on Friday.”

When asked why he hadn’t contacted the Socialist Workers Party to ask them to correct the online article, Mr Ruff said: “I will make that phone call now to get it sorted.”

Unison had planned to ballot its 8,500 members for a five-day strike to take place in mid-October.

The industrial action could have disrupted schools and bin collections across Kirklees.

But on September 6, Unison agreed to postpone the ballot after reaching an understanding with the council.

However, the deal with Kirklees lasts only until the Government announces its Comprehensive Spending Review on October 20.