Fire and rehire plan is still on the cards

Around 150 staff members at Worcestershire County Council are due to be affected

Plans to fire and rehire about 150 members of council staff look to be going ahead, despite the new government preparing to ban the practice.

Some staff at Worcestershire County Council will be dismissed from their current 37-hour contracts in October and re-hired on 35-hour contracts.

Unison, the public service union, has called the process “obscene” and said it amounted to a 5% pay cut.

The Conservative-run council said it had been in consultation with those affected, and had stayed "in dialogue" with them both before and during the process.

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has previously promised to pass legislation to end these practices within 100 days of taking office.

'Race against time'

Jack Kay, regional organiser for Unison West Midlands, said the council was now in a “race against time” to complete the process before it was banned.

Mr Kay added that the actions were “obscene” and would only save the authority “a miniscule amount of money” in relation to its overall budget.

Following one-to-one meetings with council bosses, only one worker planned to accept the proposals, according to consultation documents seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The documents also showed 87 staff members applied for their roles to be considered exempt from the process and two were approved.

Labour councillor Richard Udall said the council's action was “shocking” and he planned to approach Worcestershire's two new Labour MPs about the issue.

A council spokesperson said the local authority had consulted “approximately 150 staff, less than six per cent of the workforce” on the plans, and had remained "in dialogue" with staff and unions throughout the process.

They added “the chief executive authorised the proposals to be implemented” after the consultation and “it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage as the process is ongoing.”

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.