Kirklees Council staff balloted for strike over job cuts

Kirklees Council is facing a projected budget overspend of £20m this year

Staff at Kirklees Council are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over job losses.

Unison said the authority was planning to cut 250 jobs due to a projected £20m overspend in this year's budget.

The union said the cuts were the first of 750 planned, which would "decimate local services and force a huge number of people into unemployment".

Labour councillor Graham Turner said the authority was "doing everything we can to avoid redundancies".

Robin Symonds from Unison said: "The authority hasn't even told Unison which services will be affected, and which jobs will be cut.

"Voluntary redundancies have been ruled out - and no details have been given on what policies the council intends to follow."

The union said it was notified earlier this month of the proposed redundancies, which are scheduled for between October and March 2024.

Mr Turner said the council stood "with our unions in calling for a fairer funding settlement from government to protect local services".

"We are doing everything we can to avoid redundancies," he said.

"That is why we have introduced spending controls across the organisation, reduced recruitment, are rationalising our assets, councillors have proposed to cut their allowances, and we continue to work on further proposals for savings so that we can set a balanced budget for the next financial year.

"We will also look to redeploy staff and support them into different roles where service changes affect colleagues' existing roles."