Leeds City Council plans 3,000 job cuts to save £90m

[Leeds-lad]

liits wrote: Leeds-lad wrote: The majority of these Redundancies have come through voluntary/early severance,therefore I would imagine that these leavers are in the 40 to 60 age bracket and may be eligible for Pension rights Leeds-Lad, could you explain what early severance is? As a council employee [although not Leeds City Council] and having to re-apply for my job, I'm one of those in the 40 to 60 age bracket and if I'm not successful in my application, I'm out on my ear. That'll be my "Early Severance". My redundancy won't be voluntary and my pension won't be anywhere near my pocket for a lot of years [there are certain pieces of employment legislation that cover this, it's not all down to the employers discretion]. LCC have offered 30 weeks pay to employees who have opted to take voluntary redundancy.This is the minimum figure they can offer.A week and a halfs pay for each year working for LCC to a Max of 20 Years service.Until now, Calderdale Council has given workers up to 104 weeks severance pay but talks are underway with a view to reducing that to a maximum of 30 weeks from next April.According to the council, the existing scheme is far more generous than the 30 weeks offered by councils in Bradford, Kirklees, Sheffield, Rotherham and York, Leeds which offers up to 35 weeks and Wakefield 42Just another note,Civil Servants may receive up to 6 years Salary.Severance pay is the carrot to get you to leave.    

[liits]

Leeds-lad wrote: LCC have offered 30 weeks pay to employees who have opted to take voluntary redundancy.This is the minimum figure they can offer.A week and a halfs pay for each year working for LCC to a Max of 20 Years service. I think this may be a confusion of what is actually the statutory redundancy payment which is calculated thus:•how long you have been continuously employed•your age•your weekly pay, up to a certain limit (£380 current maximum, this will increase to £400 on 1 February 2011)You will get:•0.5 week’s pay for each full year of service where your age was under 22•1 week’s pay for each full year of service where your age was 22 or above, but under 41•1.5 week’s pay for each full year of service where your age was 41 or above Leeds-lad wrote: Until now, Calderdale Council has given workers up to 104 weeks severance pay but talks are underway with a view to reducing that to a maximum of 30 weeks from next April.According to the council, the existing scheme is far more generous than the 30 weeks offered by councils in Bradford, Kirklees, Sheffield, Rotherham and York, Leeds which offers up to 35 weeks and Wakefield 42Just another note,Civil Servants may receive up to 6 years Salary.Severance pay is the carrot to get you to leave.     My employer has a similar scheme but it targets those who are of grade SM1 and above [Senior Manager]. To all intents and purposes, this is Directors and Assistant Directors of the service departments and amounts to about twenty people. and is not as encompasing as would be believed at first glance. It is, though, a bit of a swizz as a fair number of persons who are eligable for this type of paymnt do not have much length of service with the Council, having come in from the "Private Sector" [to where they will probaly return] and thus it's a bit of "Glad Handing" because they wouldn't qualify for much of a package in terms of Statutory Redundancy.    

[cnosni]

Leeds-lad wrote: cnosni wrote: Geordie-exile wrote: Potentially 3,000 more not paying tax, and being paid Job Seekers Allowance. And that's just one city.You can see the thinking though, can't you? Victorian times. All of us going cap in hand for permission to be scullery maids or footmen at t' big 'ouse for £100 per year all found. Champion. Dont forget potential housing benfefit,free school meals,childrens tax credits,possible repossessions of homes and the addition of those persons to the social housing (joke) list.As usual some desk jockey is making a case for their own by showing their superiors how much money they are saving.This "saving" is only on paper,the real cost of these savings will actually negate and surpass the supposed saving in its overall cost to our society,both monetarily and socially. The majority of these Redundancies have come through voluntary/early severance,therefore I would imagine that these leavers are in the 40 to 60 age bracket and may be eligible for Pension rights (if over 55),they will have given some thought to leaving and will probably not have dependant children,so no Tax credits No free school meals.These leavers are to be commended for their actions because this has meant that (in Leeds) no compulsory redundancies have had to be made.These employeesare not highly paid and have given loyal service to their employer and whilst not getting much sympathy from the Public are being used by this government to set it's own agenda,this being to clobber the Councils and to bring in work for the Private Sector whose only aim is to make Profit for Shareholders.Any one who voted this shower into government should be ashamed to admit this and we now suffer the consequences.Many countries have suffered in the last few years in what has been a World Wide recession which the Con-Dems are attributing to Labour (in Britain)The Economy was starting to grow the Loan to the Banks would be repaid with the Govt benefitting in the long term.Billions of poundsin Tax is avoided through Tax Havens by Big Business but the Con-Dems are not doing anything about these loopholes in order not to upset their Pay Masters.We are all in this together.Ask your self this.ARE WE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER? cos I don't think we are. I am in the 40-60 age group,with child of school age,and the loss of my job would result in me being unable to pay my motrgage.Two out of three of the above is correct,but which two?Im not entireley sure where you are coming from with some of your points,but somehow i think you are trying to come to terms with the mess we are in.When all this recesssion business kicked in i was a bit underwhelmed,with regards to comparing it all to the early 80's.Now i understand we are looking at 2.5M and growing.Not good im afraid

[chameleon]

I was a victim of the 80's event Chris, employment with LCC ending and by comparrison, this current situation does seem very mild. The things I remember most were the job shortages of course, the crippling interest rates (later if not sooner) and the 'penalty' in terms of unavailable help because we had some income from my wife being employed instead of staying home - all in all benefit wise, we would then have been better place (financial if not in terms of independance) had she been workless too!Not sure how it would work now but I doo suspect that those in the middle income, particularly just a little more than the minimum thresholds, may suffer even more now. I'm so glad I'm lucky to be better placed and really feel for those who are unwitting victims this time round.    

[Crazy Jane]

I wonder how it is that they're still recruiting admin staff... I have an aptitude testy thing with them on the 11th.Unless it's going to be like several interviews i've had, which ended in neither success nor failure, but with the post itself evaporating before it was ever filled.

[BJF]

New recruits will get poorer pay & conditions, so they are cheaper to employ.

[Reginal Perrin]

Leeds City Council have 3,000 employees? It's billed as one in 6 so that means we currently have 18,000 employed by the council.One employee for every 41 people. Is this necessary?What do these people do?

[geoffb]

Reginal Perrin wrote: Leeds City Council have 3,000 employees? It's billed as one in 6 so that means we currently have 18,000 employed by the council.One employee for every 41 people. Is this necessary?What do these people do? Empty your bins weekly, cut the grass on municpal land to a high standard, repair potholes in the road to the correct spec. Maintain municipal buildings, etc.etc.Infact they have just filled the pothoes on a road nearby us, you have never seen anything like it, my grandson could have done better with play dough. They did this in the rain over the weekend, used the back of a shovel as a whacker, the next frost will lift the lot out. Not sub contractors but council direct labour, I suppose there will be an inspection committee visiting shortly.    

[Reginal Perrin]

geoffb wrote: Reginal Perrin wrote: Leeds City Council have 3,000 employees? It's billed as one in 6 so that means we currently have 18,000 employed by the council.One employee for every 41 people. Is this necessary?What do these people do? Empty your bins weekly, cut the grass on municpal land to a high standard, repair potholes in the road to the correct spec. Maintain municipal buildings, etc.etc.Infact they have just filled the pothoes on a road nearby us, you have never seen anything like it, my grandson could have done better with play dough. They did this in the rain over the weekend, used the back of a shovel as a whacker, the next frost will lift the lot out. Not sub contractors but council direct labour, I suppose there will be an inspection committee visiting shortly. I love the smell of sarcasm in the afternoons.    

[The Parksider]

BJF wrote: New recruits will get poorer pay & conditions, so they are cheaper to employ. I hear youI hear youI hear you etc etc etc