Thousands of staff cut from Gloucestershire councils, statistics show
MORE than 5,000 employees have been axed from Gloucestershire County Council's workforce in less than three years, according to the latest statistics.
The loss of 5,478 roles, a 25.4 per cent reduction in workers between the first quarter of 2010 and the third quarter of 2012, ranks the authority third in the south west for staff cuts.
Cheltenham Borough Council's workforce has shrunk from 882 employees to 640, a loss of 27.4 per cent, but Gloucester City Council's workforce has bucked the trend of reductions, growing from 489 to 575, up 17.5 per cent.
The figures have been published by GMB, the union for public service workers.
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All of the data was provided by local authorities to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the numbers take into account the schools workforce.
Gloucestershire is one of five councils in the south west which GMB has written to, querying the figures they gave to ONS.
Councillor Mark Hawthorne, leader of the county council, described the figures as "misleading".
He said: "These figures are rather misleading because they contain school staff who have transferred to academies, as well as staff who've transferred to other organisations.
"We have had to make hard choices to balance our books and enable us to protect vital services – like supporting the vulnerable in our community.
"That has inevitably led to some job losses, but not nearly on the scale claimed here."
Amanda Attfield, head of human resources for Cheltenham Borough Council, attributed the drop in staff numbers partly to the increased sharing of services.
She said: "There have been significant changes as a result of the different way services are delivered by the council."
A spokesman for Gloucester City Council said the authority would have to check the figures in detail, but added that permanent staffing levels 'had not changed'.
He said any increase would be down to the use of temporary staff.
9 Comments
by Wassisname
Thursday, March 14 2013, 9:29AM
“The all chiefs and no Indians situation is prevalent in both the public and private sectors in this country. People with business degrees frm uni but no work experience, going into management positions where they spend all day in pointless meetings producing fatuous legislation which actually interferes with the people doing the work!”
by elgoog
Thursday, March 14 2013, 8:54AM
“SaintMichael, All the figures shown are Full Time Equivalent.”
by SaintMichael
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 10:09PM
“number of employees means the exact number of people working, not the number of jobs which CameronCleggOsborne refer to as Full Time Equivalents, in other words staff on 37 hours a week. if full time posts have been replaced by lots of people doing less hours then the number of employees will increase.
if several part time workers have been replaced by full time staff, the numbers of employees will have been reduced”
by geraint2010
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 11:33AM
“Well, thanks to Gloucester's caring, sharing, council, these hapless ex-low paid workers can now ease their despair by blowing their redundancy payments on endless nights of drinking to a continual state of oblivion in the clubs and pubs of our super-safe - traffic free - Eastgate quarter.”
by elgoog
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 10:52AM
“"Cheltenham Borough Council's workforce has shrunk from 882 employees to 640,"
These figures are wrong.The council tax guide 2013-14 issued with my Council tax bill shows...
(page 12 Our staff) "The council expects to employ 347 full time equivalent staff in 2013-14 compared with 363 in 2012-13.
Wassisname is right to say that most have gone from the lower end of the pay scales.
The number of Senior staff "directors and assistant directors" has not gone down in proportion nor, despite these staff reductions, has their pay gone down.
The ratio of chiefs to indians is quite ludicrous when compared with the real world.”
by Shireresident
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 10:47AM
“It's all very well Cheltenham saving money by "sharing services" but surely having one set of auditors and one set of lawyers for two councils means that there are less staff to do the same amount of work which in effect means a cut in service. I know that white collar jobs come in for a lot of flack in these pages but believe me scimping on legal and audit services is a false economy which, in the long run costs the taxpayer.”
by Ysedra
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 10:29AM
“I almost never agree with Shaun Shute, but it is an easy fix, cutting staff, and exposed as such when the vital work stops getting done.”
by SELINA30
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 9:21AM
“The council are now having to replace the staff they paid to leave because they cannot cope. Another government shambles.”
by Wassisname
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 8:49AM
“All this at the behest of our 'in it together' Government. Little wonder we are tripping over paving slabs and rubbish bins and falling down pot holes. A lot of these workers are at the lower end of the pay scale and virtually all of their income goes back into the system. Does it not make more sense to keep them employed rather than paying them out of work benefits?”