Jobs ultimatum for 9,000 Cordia workers

Staff employed within the largest of Glasgow City Council’s hived-off companies will have their hours and salaries drastically cut or face as many as 800 redundancies.

Management at Cordia, which has almost 9,000 staff and provides services ranging from home care to corporate catering, have been meeting with union leaders in recent weeks over how the arm’s-length agency, or Aleo, deals with £6 million in cuts this financial year.

The body, caught up in the wake of the departure of shamed former council leader Steven Purcell, has been instructed by the local authority to make £3m in savings this year and will also receive £3m less for social care it delivered to thousands of elderly and infirm across Glasgow – both having a major impact on staff numbers.

Cordia has not disputed the figures and accused the trade unions of breaching confidences, even though The Herald acquired the figures from a newsletter circulated to staff.

The company, headed by £132,500-a-year entrepreneur Fergus Chambers and alleged to have been misused by Mr Purcell when entertaining friends and political colleagues, had initially wanted 120 co-ordinators, mostly females in charge of teams of up to 20 home helps, to volunteer for redundancy across the next two years. It also wanted 200 home care staff to volunteer to go in the next 12 months.

Just seven co-ordinators volunteered to leave, along with 19 home-care staff. As a result, management at first sought compulsory redundancies but then said staff could stay – with radically reduced pay and terms and conditions, and all co-ordinators being issued the same contracts as home helps.

Both options were rejected by unions, and Cordia is now seeking voluntary redundancies, early retirement or voluntary reduction in hours.

Alex McLuckie of GMB said: “Our real concern is that Cordia is being strangled at birth, with the reduction in payments from the council leading to job losses and diminishing terms and conditions.”

A Cordia spokesman said: “The figures quoted come from a long-term planning document that we shared freely and in confidence with the trade union involved.

“They are not written in stone and are aimed at being the basis of an ongoing process that includes some members of staff being given the option of voluntary redundancy or redeployment.”