Double whammy of job losses from council cuts 16/2/12
There will be a double whammy of job losses in the local economy as a consequence of the Comhairle making staff redundant, says a trade union.
Each council redundancy risks another job lost in the local economy highlights local government union Unison.
Unison's Western Isles local government branch union representative Flora Somerville says the loss of each council salary being spent in island shops and businesses will indirectly create jobs losses in the private sector.
It means the actual figure for job losses within the council would be doubled across the Western Isles economy.
She said the union is concerned that the next two years’ budgets will be even tougher than 2012.
She says many redundant council employees would seek alternative work on the mainland, taking their families with them. This would exacerbate the island’s depopulation problem particularly with the outflow of children and youth.
This would worsen the age balance issues by having an even bigger number of elderly people against an accelerating decrease in younger residents.
Mrs Somerville said: “There are real fears for the local economy not just for those who lose their jobs.
“Statistics show that for every single job lost in the council another job in lost in the private sector.
“And for every pound a public sector earns, they spend 70 pence of that in island shops.
“So for every job we lose, whether voluntary or compulsory redundancy or natural wastage, there will be a huge impact on our local economy.”
“For every pound and every job lost there is a corresponding loss of flow through the local economy.”
The council says job losses are inevitable in the coming financial year. It insists it will try to avoid compulsory redundancies.
However, a number of people are likely to be forced out of their posts.
When people leave because two posts have been merged into one the council refuses to call this compulsory redundancy thus the real scale of the issue is greater than it reports.
About 50% of the council’s £116,000 budget is spent on wages and employee expenses so council chiefs are looking to prune these costs.
Around 130 staff have departed in the past two years and more will be made redundant over the coming 12 months. In addition there will be even less jobs as the council is imposing a vacancy freeze on certain posts in a bid to save cash.