Councillor Phélim Mac Cafferty commented:
“Labour have now published the blueprint for their budget: P&R papers here
“Further to a written question I submitted to last full council [1], we know that 309 staff are engaged in consultation exercises which could result in around 39 redundancies. Further consultation exercises will start in the near future affecting approximately 123 staff which could result in around 45 redundancies.
“We have been warned by Council Leader, Warren Morgan that “some budget proposals may require formal consultation with staff later in the year as detailed proposals emerge.”
“Again we are concerned to see that we will lose experienced staff who are deeply valued. The budget proposals come after inadequate consultation with staff and service users. What is worrying is that many of these consultations have begun prior to any budget being agreed through the formal democratic process. I am worried about the damage to staff morale who are valiantly keeping services going, while others are leaving. We know that 60% of our staff are women so having faced so much of the burden of cuts once again they will be faced with even more. 7 in 10 staff have worked for the council for over 5 years so cuts will see the council lose years’ worth of accumulated knowledge of the city. It’s just another way in which short-sighted cuts are wrecking public services.”
“We will be looking in much more detail at the budget proposals and preparing a fuller analysis in the coming weeks.”