Council to cut 750 staff?

Unconfirmed reports tonight from Council insiders that the Tories are looking to cut around 750 people from the Council headcount in a move which will impact front-line services.

Parks, education services, bin services, road resurfacing and services to the elderly will be impacted.

According to insiders, the cuts in staff are currently being managed in an ingenious but quite dubious manner. Given I spend a chunk of my day dealing with employment law, it appears that the Council is going through a series of 30-day 'mini-consultations' under the guise that the headcount being reviewed is beneath a certain size in defined areas.

Sadly an employment tribunal will look very unfavourably at this type of behaviour on appeal. The Council should of course follow the scripted 90 day consultation to the letter and not try and play games on redundancy. Oh well, warning out of the way. Expect a few appeals.

So why, as members of the public, have we not heard about cuts to staff?

After all, it seems other Councils have not had a problem. Kent Council Council is to cut 1500 staff, Hampshire Council to cut 1200 staff, Norfolk 750 staff, Durham 1600 and East Sussex 200 staff.

In these austere times most people accept that we need to live within our means but they would also believe that the rules should be followed, not only in spirit, but to the letter. Given the hollow tributes given by Medway Conservatives to the public servants who have worked for our community for years, it is the least for them to expect a fair and transparent process.

This blog also wonders how many senior Directors of the Council are also included in this restructuring exercise. Whistle-blowers to this blog indicate that despite being a top-to-bottom review it appears senior Directors are not included. More mid-level to bottom then. How convenient?!

Coming from a private sector background it would be remiss of this blog to point out that Managing Director's were the first to take the hit in the banking sector. How odd that in the public sector it appears to be the indians that get the chop whilst the chiefs sit smoking their pipes.

And the Medway Conservatives...?

Councillor Jarrett maybe poor at schmoozing the press but he is also quite transparent politically. He is probably backdating the really harsh front line cuts until after the May local election because he does not want the public to make it an election issue.

Not only a slight-of-hand but atypically dishonest once again.

Ironically it is also likely he will be turfed out at that point as well. His febrile backbenchers and the Rochester & Strood faction are sharpening the knives.

Whoever takes the job after him has therefore been left a poison chalice in every sense. Whether Labour or Conservative.

Ouch!