Somerset County Council employees take action over redundancy row

Posted 13/07/2011

Unison members employed by Somerset County Council have started working to rule over a redundancy dispute.

The action began yesterday (July 13th) and is set to continue indefinitely.

It means that although individuals have not gone on strike, they will refuse to undertake any tasks not detailed in their job descriptions, such as driving personal cars or working extra hours.

The disagreement came about after employees called for bosses to increase redundancy pay-offs to twice the current offering.

Around ten per cent of the workforce voted in favour of the action.

Councillor Harvey Siggs, Somerset’s cabinet member for human resources, described the situation as “disappointing”.

“Our intention has always been to minimise the number of redundancies but the cost of maintaining such high levels of redundancy payments in the current economic climate is unsustainable,” he added.

Speaking about the action at the end of last month, Unison’s south-west regional organiser Helen Eccles said the length of the protest will depend on how positively the council responds.

Individuals who think they may have a claim under employment law can get advice from the team at Ashtons Legal.