The Learning and Skills Council has denied unions claims that it is testing staff IQ as part of plans to make redundancies.
Staff at the council are striking today in a dispute over plans to cut more than 1,000 jobs.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) said more than 2,000 of its members were taking industrial action against 1,120 proposed redundancies and the refusal by management to offer a ‘no compulsory redundancies’ guarantee.
The PCS also claimed that the Learning and Skills Council had hired assessors to conduct IQ and psychometric tests “to identify managers it does not want to keep”.
However, Sally Stewart, HR director at the council told Personnel Today that this was not the case.
She said there would only be assessments in select circumstances and not for jobs that would continue in their present form as the council undergoes a restructuring programme.
“There will be assessment for people moving into roles that are new to the organisation or into new roles themselves to prove they are suitable,” she said. “We are not testing for IQ, numeracy or literacy.”
She added that the Learning and Skills Council could not make promises about compulsory redundancies because she did not know how many people would accept voluntary redundancy.
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