Jim Inch, Director of Corporate Services at City of Edinburgh Council, contacted all staff on 14 January outlining ways to reduce staffing costs. Spurtle received a transcript of this message which we reproduce below.
As part of the budget proposals, the Council is recommending a reduction in staffing levels to help find the £90 million efficiency savings required by 2012. Staffing costs alone accounted for over £500 million in the year 2009/10, and it is recognised that there is a need to find ways to maintain services while reducing staffing costs.
To achieve this, a range of options are being considered such as natural turnover, deleting vacant posts, ending temporary contracts and reducing agency and overtime working and restructuring to reduce the number of management posts.
Key policies on voluntary early release and redeployment have been developed to support the Workforce Management activities. These are being discussed with the Trade Unions and will be considered at the Policy and Strategy Committee next week. The proactive and robust redeployment process put forward will increase HR’s role to ensure that all efforts are made to secure alternative employment for individuals who become surplus and require to be redeployed to other suitable alternative employment.
In order to minimise the need for redundancies, the Council is also reinforcing its commitment to flexible working. We are asking all staff to consider if they could help to reduce staff costs by:
* reducing their working hours (eg moving to part-time, job share or term time only working)
* taking additional unpaid leave (eg an extra day a month)
* taking an unpaid break (eg a career break or a long holiday)
Managers will do all they can to support you in this, because flexible working is a way of offering a real benefit to staff while also limiting the need to consider reductions in jobs and services. If you would like to find out more about the options available to you check out the Orb or speak to your line manager.
However, while all reasonable efforts will be made to secure redeployment for surplus employees, it is likely that some redundancies will still be necessary.
We realise that this will be an unsettling period for staff, particularly those of you in the service areas affected, and we will avoid compulsory redundancies where possible. If you are in a service area targeted for staffing reduction, your manager will discuss the options with you and support you through the process.
Jim Inch
Director of Corporate Services