SIC hopes to avoid compulsory redundancies
SHETLAND Islands Council will do all it can to avoid compulsory redundancies during the latest round of management restructuring, chief executive Alistair Buchan pledged on Wednesday night.
His comments followed a lengthy meeting with staff and unions concerned about plans for the second phase of reorganising the way the authority is run, in the hope of saving £1 million a year.
The council’s three main unions will hold a mass meeting on Thursday afternoon to air their concerns about their jobs being put under threat.
Mr Buchan and his team of consultants have already transformed the council’s top two tiers of management. Now it is in the process of creating a third tier – team leaders – with around 300 existing staff being invited to apply for about 60 new posts.
The move has sparked fear and rumour that this will force employees off the payroll, breaching the council’s policy of no compulsory redundancies.
Branch chairman of white collar union Unison, Brian Smith, said that his members were confused by the stance management was taking and feared redundancy would be imposed on some employees.
“We want the council to be far clearer than they have been to date about exactly what they are doing. We want them to share things with the staff rather than make decisions in advance,” he said.
“We are very concerned and our members are not satisfied with the way things have been done so far.”
However Mr Buchan said the council was doing everything that it could to minimise the risk to existing staff.
Under the new policy, some staff will be “matched into” new posts, others will find themselves competing for new jobs and others will be able to apply for voluntary redundancy, he said.
“There is no proposal whatsoever at the moment to change in any way at all the council’s existing policy of redundancy and redeployment, which basically says that the council takes all possible steps to minimise the risk of compulsory redundancy.
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“However the existing policy does not completely rule out the possibility as a last resort.
“There will always be uncertainty in a situation such as this, but we will continue to speak to staff and unions.
“The SIC’s terms and conditions are in my experience much more generous and protective of staff than is the case in many other authorities and we will continue to look at all opportunities to minimise the potential for risk to the livelihood for our existing staff.”
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