Union opposes Nottinghamshire police redundancy plan

A public sector union says Nottinghamshire Police are considering hundreds of civilian redundancies in the next six months.

A Unison spokesman said the force was looking at 746 posts in its second stage of restructuring.

The police said the union was using "inflammatory" language and predicted the actual number of redundancies would be "a fraction of that figure".

A Unison spokesman said it will hold a strike vote over the proposed layoffs.

The force has already made about 150 civilian staff redundant in the first stage of its plan, Unison said.

'Speculative scaremongering'

The force has a total of 1,900 civilian staff including clerks, managers and other specialists.

A police spokesman said: "Proposals to restructure a number of departments have just been completed and we are currently discussing these proposals with the staff affected.

"No decisions will be taken for some time yet, and therefore to talk about numbers of staff who may or may not be affected by the proposals is little short of speculative scaremongering.

"These are proposals only at this stage and are genuinely open to change."

Unison spokesman Peter Button said staff had backed a strike vote and a ballot would take place in late July, with a walkout possible at the end of August.

Nottinghamshire Police must save £46m by 2015, due to spending cuts.

'Greatest of respect'

A Unison statement added: "Unison is recommending to ballot its members for industrial action because we cannot condone such a reckless waste of public money.

"We cannot accept that staff members need to be made needlessly redundant where work exists."

The union said there had been "a severe lack of consultation over the proposals".

The police said it had attempted to treat its staff "with the greatest of respect, dignity and care".

"What won't help is the distribution of highly inflammatory, crass and inaccurate public statements that serve only to increase anxiety and uncertainty," a police spokesman said.