Nottingham City Council cuts jobs in bid to save £14m

Nottingham City Council will make more than 450 redundancies in a bid to save £14m after consultations ended with unions.

More than 180 employees have been accepted for voluntary redundancy, but unions fear the remaining posts could be cut through compulsory redundancy after the consultation ended late last month.

Some 200 staff have been urged to apply for alternative roles elsewhere in the council as two teams that provide specialist services to young ethnic minorities have been cut due to “difficult global economic circumstances”.

Council leader Jon Collins said talks were ongoing with staff representatives and unions. “We introduced a robust vacancy management process to not only reduce immediate costs in these difficult times, but to provide redeployment options for employees at risk of redundancy,” he said.

“Through voluntary redundancies we have significantly reduced the number of people at risk and are continuing our dialogue with employees and trade unions to ensure the number of compulsory redundancies is minimised and ensure that services continue to be provided.”

A Unison spokesman said they were concerned the cuts would make little difference to the council’s coffers.

“The savings the council is saying it will make from making staff redundant seem small once they have received redundancy settlements,” he said.

A council spokesman was unable to confirm how many of the jobs in danger were full-time, nor how many alternative roles were available within the council.