Greenwich Council has been criticised for advertising 11 new HR roles, despite having spent more than £500,000 making 12 HR staff redundant since 2008.
The council, which estimates that it may need to make £70 million in savings as a result of the Government’s austerity measures, placed adverts for roles including a lead HR business partner with a starting salary of £64,827 and a principle pay and rewards officer that was being offered £40,716. Eleven HR jobs appeared on its website in July with the starting salaries amounting to £402,486.
The jobs were created despite the council spending £509,059 on the redundancies of 12 HR staff since 2008 – a figure revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request by local newspaper News Shopper.
Spencer Drury, leader of the Conservatives at Greenwich Council, said: “At a time when we are having to make cuts across the council, employing more HR people is not going to improve the quality of services for residents. It seems to me this is a waste of money.”
A council spokesman said: “Twelve old HR posts were made redundant as part of a reorganisation which was undertaken to reflect the need for different roles requiring completely new skills and experience. These posts are part of the planned reorganisation of the service which is contained within existing budgets.”
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