Union bosses hail Sandwell Council jobs pledge
Union bosses have welcomed Sandwell Council's pledge not to make any more compulsory redundancies during the next two years.
Despite needing to make savings of £38m by 2018, council chiefs have promised workers their jobs are safe.
They say they want to reward staff for their 'resilience and commitment'.
Representatives from Unison, Unite the Union and the GMB have been involved in talks with the authority to agree the 'jobs promise'.
The deal will see a re-shuffle among staff, with some switching departments to areas of higher importance. They will be given support and training for new roles.
There will also be a freeze on recruitment of 'all but essential' workers during the two-year period.
The council will also use less agency and temporary workers.
A statement issued byTony Barnsley and Sharon Campion, joint branch secretaries of Sandwell Unison, said: "Unison, Unite the Union and the GMB have been involved with negotiations with the council on a jobs promise aiming to reduce the amount of workers being made redundant.
"For the last few years union representatives have been frustrated by the council's failure to
proactively avoid the need for redundancies to take place.
"We feel that in a number of restructures the council only gave limited effort to avoid individuals being made redundant."
It added: "The Joint Trade Unions feel that this negotiated agreement is a step forward in trying to avoid unnecessary redundancies and we feel we have now obtained the sufficient safeguards to agree the paper."
The council said the new agreement would also save cash as well as improve morale among workers.
Almost 400 jobs have been lost and £6million spent on redundancy pay-offs since 2013.
Chief executive Jan Britton said: "Despite this turbulence, our employees have shown great resilience and commitment.
"Our most recent survey shows they are proud to work for Sandwell.
"But it also highlights that job security is something they worry about.
"Our new 'jobs promise' will answer those fears while also allowing the council to develop the modern, skilled workforce for the jobs the residents of Sandwell need us to do for them."
Sandwell has lost £280 million in all from its budget over the past five years – and 2015/16's will be £122 million less than it was in 2010/11.
Council leader Darren Cooper said he believed the authority was one of the first in the country to introduce such a scheme.
