Nottinghamshire Council Council has £11m job cut bill

The first wave of voluntary redundancies at Nottinghamshire County Council will cost almost £11m - more than £25,000 per post.

The Conservative-controlled council is reducing its budget by £150m over three years with up to 3,000 posts at risk.

It said the payments of £10.9m to 433 staff was high because it included managers and long service staff and the move would save £13.8m a year.

Unison said is was "shameful" to spend so much to get rid of jobs.

The authority said reducing the number of managers would make it "more efficient, less bureaucratic and bring the people running services closer to the people who receive them."

Workers 'overloaded'

Chief Executive, Mick Burrows added: "All responsible organisations, public or private sector, who are seeking to reduce their workforce face one off redundancy costs and budget accordingly.

"The payments reflect the person's salary and their number of years service, all our payments are in line the Council's agreed redundancy policy and conditions. There are no golden handshakes or additional payments."

But public sector union Unison, which is balloting members over strike action, said costs were going to escalate with 1,000 compulsory redundancies and another 400 voluntary redundancies expected this year alone.

Martin Sleath, Joint Branch Secretary, said: "It is shameful so much money is being spent to pay for redundancies instead of maintaining services - it will be a great loss to the people of Nottingham.

"It's not true these cuts in management will lead to a more efficient service. I think the effect will be to overload front line workers because there will be less management support."

The strike ballot will close on 15 February.