Employment law forces council to pay significant redundancy payments

Posted 18/06/2012

A council in the south-east of England has blamed employment law for the need to pay significant amounts of redundancy pay to members of staff who have lost their jobs.Leader of Kent County Council Paul Carter stated the decision to let employees go is going to save the organisation a “fortune” in the coming years.But he admitted the cost of the redundancies in the short-term is large, noting: “The highest paid staff in local government are valuable, experienced people but when savings need to be made I think taxpayers would rather see cuts to management than to frontline staff.”Some 1,500 employees have been let go by the council in a bid to save £40 million from its staffing budgets.In a statement, the local authority revealed that council tax would have had to have been increased by eight per cent if it was not for the reductions in the workforce.Posted by Ross Strowger