Voluntary redundancy can be offered to council staff despite “premature” claims

Glasgow City Council is no longer planning to ask workers to come forward for redundancy this month but has agreed voluntary severance can be offered to staff whose exit can be justified by a business case.

It is part of a service reform plan to deal with tightening budgets, which are expected to be significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic, over a three-year period.

Labour leader Frank McAveety said he had “very strong concerns” about agreeing to the proposal while workers are responding to the pandemic.

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He said: “Given the effort and energy by staff in the present situation to step up to the plate, my concerns about the tone, or the perception of the paper, will be that staff will be considered expendable in the longer term.”

Councillor Michelle Ferns, city convener for workforce, said: “The current crisis has given us a chance to focus on what potentially will be new ways of working.”

She added some people might want to assess their work life balance or caring responsibilities in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“It’s just a tool, among many, that HR will need to realign and redesign.”

A “trawl for registrations of interest” in voluntary redundancies had been scheduled for June 30 but had to be put on hold due to the pandemic. This will no longer take place, but voluntary redundancies could be used, along with early retirements and staff turnover, to save money.

The council has agreed no additional pension years would be paid to anyone taking voluntary severance. Council policy had previously allowed up to four added years of pensionable service in case of redundancy.

Robert Anderson, the council’s Head of HR, said people tend to think of added years as a “one-off payment” but “it is an annual liability”.

He described it as an “obstacle” to service reform and said: “We’d be operating with an expensive tool in the toolbox and I’d doubt our ability to use it, other than in very limited cases.”

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On redundancy, early retirement and redeployment, he said: “Just because you have a tool in the toolbox doesn’t mean you take it out and use it but I think it’s useful when you start a job to make sure you have the tools available.”

Labour councillor Bill Butler said: “Fundamentally the Labour Group feel this is not the time to pass such a paper. We feel it gives out all the wrong signals.”

And Mr McAveety added he felt the proposals were “premature” until a “greater picture on what the council’s recovery and renewal strategy will be”.

Council leader Susan Aitken said, at this stage, the council was just agreeing to having the tool available. “If we do not have it, then it makes the recovery and renewal process actually tougher.

“It actually puts a barrier in the way of planning recovery and renewal.”

She added: “I think giving people the option – and it absolutely is an option – to see there might be a way to ease themselves out of work which doesn’t suddenly cut off their income, but gives them early access to their pension, will be an enormous relief to quite a few of our employees.”

She said it would be “premature” if specific areas, or staff, had been identified for redundancy or early retirement.

The proposals were passed by 15 votes to six, with Labour councillors voting against.