£700,000 bill as 46 council staff made redundant: What do you think?

Published 26 Apr 2012 09:30 2 Comments

BRACKNELL Forest Council has paid out more than £700,000 in redundancy payments after laying off 46 staff last month. It was part of an ongoing cost-cutting drive to help plug a £6m gap in its budget.

In all, 66 positions were axed, 44 of these worked at either the now closed Ladybank care home in Birch Hill or the council's home care team. Of the 66, 18 workers were redeployed, according to a report going to the council's employment committee on Tuesday.

Two employees were no longer eligible for redundancy because one was dismissed and the other no longer met the criteria for continuous service.

The other 46 council workers were made compulsorily redundant at the end of last month.

The initial redundancy costs previously agreed by the council's employment committee were £919,648 but the redeployments have reduced the total bill to £727,576.

The council says, though, the redundancies will save £1.324m a year from its staffing budget, from salaries / employer contributions.

* What do you think of the redundancies and their cost? Have your say below or email letters@bracknellnews.co.uk

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This article appeared in Bracknell News 26 Apr 12

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

• 

  chuckmeat
  23 posts
  Apr 26, 12:41
  Report comment

  If the yearly salary bill for the 46 staff is just over £1.3 million then this gives an average gross yearly salary of almost 29k per staff member. The payout of £727,756 gives an average of almost 16k for each of the 46 staff losing their jobs which equates to approx six months salary which will be tax free. Six months salary is the average redundancy pay out I believe.
  
  What do I think? I do not wish to see anybody lose their job but judging by the figures it would seem the redundancy packages were fair.
  
  The article refers to workers therefore it leaves me to assume that the redundancies did not included highly paid senior management or executives. Have any of these highly paid individuals taken a pay cut considering that during these austere times we are 'all in this together.' ?
  
  Recommend?   Yes 6     No 0

• 

  honeybear
  288 posts
  May 9, 07:57
  Report comment

  Get rid of the workers and then cut the services as nobody let to do the work.
  
  But what are the managers doing if they have no staff?????????
  
  Feathering thier nests.................................
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 3

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