Fire and rehire move damaging for council - union

A council's plan to fire and rehire about 140 staff members will be damaging to the authority and its services, a union has said.

Conservatives who lead Worcestershire County Council voted to dismiss some staff from 37-hour contracts and rehire them on 35-hour contracts, which they said would save £500,000.

But Jack Kay, regional organiser for Unison, said its members worked "many hours above their contracts" in order to perform their duties, and the switch would undermine that "goodwill" and in turn have an impact on service provision.

Marcus Hart, the council's deputy leader, said the workers were valued but the change was fairer for its overall workforce.

He told BBC Politics Midlands: "We have to look at the fairness for all of our employees and we do have nearly 900 employees who are on 35 hours a week."

Affected staff - about 6% of the workforce - includes those in key areas such as highway maintenance, flooding and planning.

The council consulted with employees and unions but had not yet reached an agreement, Mr Hart said, adding the move was "lawful".

The new contracts are expected to be brought in next month.

Mr Hart added it was part of a strategy to address a budget deficit of more than £35m.

Mr Kay said the move represented a 5% pay cut at a time when people were struggling financially.

He said he understood the financial difficulties facing local authorities but questioned the £500,000 savings figure.

He told the BBC the highest amount "was closer to £300,000", when factors such as roles covered by capital funding were considered.

Mr Kay added: "The actual backlash and damage it's going to have for the county council is going to massively outweigh the small savings that they may make."

He said employees that would be impacted included "some of their most loyal and longstanding members of staff" who felt "bitterly disappointed" and angry.

"A lot of these members work hours way beyond their 37-hour contracts because they care about their job, they understand the importance, they understand the safety elements that are crucial for their jobs," he said.

"They are not going to feel the same way at the end of this process as they did beforehand."

He said the potential loss of these hours was "going to have a massive impact on lots of key services within the county council".

Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.