800 council workers fired in last two years
Saturday 26th June 2010, 11:35AM BST.
More than 800 council workers across the West Midlands have been sacked in the last two years, new figures show.
Employees have lost their jobs for an array of reasons including poor attendance, misconduct and health issues.
Around half of the jobs – 416 – have gone at Birmingham City Council which has dismissed 159 people over issues with discipline.
Another 234 have been sacked at Staffordshire County Council with 101 people losing their job in the last two years due to continual absence.
In the Black Country the local authority with the highest rate for sacking staff in the last two years is Dudley Council which has dismissed 75 staff for reasons including misconduct and not being capable.
Another 66 have lost their jobs at Walsall Council including five for gross misconduct. In Wolverhampton 38 have been sacked for both conduct and capability reasons.
Some 43 have been sacked from Sandwell Council over the last two years, according to the figures which have been released under the Freedom Of Information Act as well.
Councillor Joan Stevenson, Wolverhampton City Council’s cabinet member for organisation, people and performance, said: “The council sets realistic and measurable standards of performance for its employees. If the required standard has not been reached and maintained after a reasonable period of time, the employee can be dismissed.”
Councillor Chris Towe, Walsall Council cabinet member for finance and personnel, added if staff were not fulfilling their role they would take action.”
Councillor Mark Winnington, Staffordshire County Council’s cabinet member for performance and organisation said they had launched a clampdown on sickness absence and added: “We expect the best of all our employees, and if there is an indication they are not delivering, this will be looked into.”
Stafford Borough Council had one worker who had not successfully completed the probationary period, two have gone from South Staffordshire District Council while Lichfield District Council has not dismissed anyone over the last two years.Wyre Forest District Council has also dismissed two members of staff for gross misconduct.
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Would be interesting to see how many people were over the age of 50……finding whatever you can on a person then sacking them is a lot cheaper than making them redundant!And making sure that the appeal isn’t held until 4 months later ruins any chance of a tribunal. Very sneaky Wolverhampton City Council!!!!
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It seems to me somebody should look into the interviewing procedures and the interviewers that enable all these inappropriate choices to be employed in the first case. It’s easy to hire someone that don’t work out from time to time but this looks like an epidemic. Hiring and firing costs a lot of our money.
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Youa re not wrong, recruitment practices are archaic in local government.
Long-winded, unprofessional and ineffective.
It takes 3-9 months to get someone into post. Compare this to a temp, but in actual fact temps are cheaper to employ, more motivated, often better skilled and in post within a day recruited by professional recrutiers.
Oh and if they do mess up they are gone straight away. And quite right too.
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Interesting, are these cutbacks or were these miscreants replaced bringing the numbers back up ?.
I must enquire as to if my Council are/have done the same.
Ex Bloxwich bloke.
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Is this report saying these sackings are a bad thing ? Shouldn’t people be sacked for misconduct or repeated non-attendance at work ?
Also, how many people are employed by these councils ? Is 800 people a tiny proportion ?
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How many of the sacked workers were taken back on after an expensive appeal? I know to a few.
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I’m not, and have never been, a manager.
However, the problem with the city council where I was employed was that the managers did not have the guts to sack totally and utterly useless workers. Instead, they used to let other members of staff sort out the muck-ups of the incompetent – the totally useless were either promoted or allowed to retire, clutching LOTS of cash.
Would I ever work for a city council again?
No.
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800 across the whole West Midlands? Thats not many, considering it includes ill health, alongside capability.Birmingham on its own is the biggest local authority in Eurpoe. How many have been sacked from the private sector across the whole West Midlands in comparison? There is no balence to the article.
The Express and Star seems to be running a thinly disguised anti public sector worker campaign.
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Unfortunately far too many council staff forget that they are after all public servants and are therefore accountable for their actions. It is our council tax that is paying their wages and we should be able to expect capable people who bother to turn in the mornings
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I agree with escapee.
I have worked for two different local authorities in the midlands, and both lacked the guts to get rid of incompetent staff. This caused poor team spirit, lack of motivation and distrust as young, keen staff see the incompetence and beleive that it’s how you act in the workplace. It breeds poor practices at work, and I am very pleased to see council’s finally taking action.
That’s why council’s are so much in debt as they are run totally inefficiently, carrying lazy staff who are unwilling to change, and think they can’t be removed as they’ve been there for 30 years.
Bring in some private sector management to streamline them, and stop council workers reading the paper for an hour every morning, going for lunch for two hours and claiming 30 mins, and sitting around listening to the football. Yes…it definately happens because I see it. Yes…we are public servants and it’s time council staff realised that!!!
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Good riddance to the work-shy slackers. If you cant be bothered to do a decent job, why should anyone employ you? Simples…
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I was employed by council, and was moved to a purchasing role, as a Walsall Council Tax payer, I was astonished by how much was wasted £75 for Ao size black card, used out of pack, 1 sheet .
£300 for 250 Gold envelopes used 5.
10,000 envelopes without window for a job that needed windows ordered by unit manager, he left them for 6 months then asked if I would try and get them returned.
One worker wanted Timberland work boots, as they looked better then everyone elses Cost £75. He left 2 weeks after they came took boots with him.
I was sacked for asking my unit manager why they kept ordering goods like this, that were not needed. I could go to craft shops, for few envelopes or even have made 5 with gold paper.
Was told I was just a girl and was paid to do, not think.
I had no witness, when I put in a complaint against him, he said that I had persistently questioned his authority, and was undermining him.
I was sacked despite there being five complaints on his file. OH forgot to say his wife is head of personnel.
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