Angus Council education, social work staff will not be spared

Angus Council leader Bob Myles has said that education and social work staff are “living in a cocoon” if they expect to be spared from the swingeing job cuts announced on Monday.

The local authority plans to axe 10% of its workforce by 2014, which is the equivalent of around 500 posts — and Mr Myles admitted compulsory redundancies are “an option.”

The head of the Angus Alliance coalition added that no department, even those which are judged to provide key services, will be protected or prioritised, and that no staff member was “sacrosanct.”

Furious opposition councillors have hit out at Mr Myles for his handling of the situation and he admitted that the first the majority of employees and a large number of elected members would have heard of it was via the press.

Trade unions were not consulted prior to the decision but now each household in Angus is being asked to provide their views on the situation via a consultation pamphlet which will be delivered shortly.

It signals yet more misery for workers who have already been told they face a two-year pay freeze.

Mr Myles said, “We will be looking to every department to see where savings can be made.

“Social work and education have very important services to deliver but that’s not to say that there aren’t savings to be made in these departments and we will try and do so.
‘Always an option’

“The staff must be living in a cocoon if they don’t realise that all public services are under great threat. Compulsory redundancies are always an option that we have although we don’t want to use that at the moment.

“But we have to look at the worst case scenario and we don’t yet know what budgets will be like in future years. However, it’s not appropriate to send out any scare stories just now.”

The cuts have been unveiled as part of a wider plan to save £23 million over four years and will be staggered over this period.

Mr Myles said that the local authority had not yet devised any voluntary redundancy or early retirement scheme which would help achieve the 10% target, triggered by Holyrood’s decision to cut council budgets by 2.6% in the next financial year.

At present, he insisted he was unable to provide details of how many posts were likely to disappear this year.

Councillor Helen Oswald, leader of Angus Council’s SNP opposition, described the administration’s handling of the situation as “completely insensitive.”

She also questioned the viability of large-scale capital projects such as the £10 million Montrose swimming pool development in light of the funding crisis. She said, “I can’t believe the first the staff will have heard about this is when they read it in The Courier this morning.

“I would have expected some kind of warning that there was going to be such an announcement. It’s the first I know about it — and that’s my biggest concern.

“How exactly are they going to restructure things? Everybody at the council is going to be concerned about their job.

“And what services are going to be cut? I’m worried that elderly, disabled and vulnerable people, those who are dependant on the council, will be sitting at home this morning reading about this and worrying if they’re still going to be provided with their service.”