Fife Council delays bid to end golden handshake deals for staff

Fife Council has postponed a voluntary early retirement scheme which Conservatives claim would have seen an end to 'golden handshakes.’

It has been delayed until September 2022 after many councillors at a policy and co-ordindation meeting raised concerns over its implementation without knowing the impact Covid 19 will have on the workforce.

In the last three financial years, Fife Council has spent more on severance and redundancy packages than any other local authority in Scotland - accumulating a total bill of £17.6 million.

"Add ons" have been distributed to various employees who left, generally through voluntary redundancy and have seen close to £500,000 set aside to boost the pension of a senior officer.

The new voluntary redundancy scheme proposes a Government-recommended cap of £95,000 to mitigate issues of over-paying senior staff.

As part of the changes, the council has also insisted on a flat rate payment of £3,000 in addition to the usual redundancy/retirement payments.

The aim is to mitigate the initial impact the change may have on some of the council's lowest paid staff.

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However, concerns were raised over the impact the delay will have.

Cllr Dave Dempsey, Conservative leader, voiced his party's disappointment and frustration at a decision to postpone the scheme.

He said: “Having pushed for this change for over a decade and finally achieved some sort of traction, it was disappointing to see Labour, backed by the SNP, add an extra year’s delay.

"While some related proposals round redundancy pay do need time to work out, a straightforward cap – something now advocated by both our governments – needn’t wait till every dot and comma is in place.

"The recommended level was £95k. It’s hard to see why it’s necessary or desirable to assign more than that to someone who already has a guaranteed index-linked pension the likes of which most folk can only dream of."

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“Labour and the SNP are forever on about reducing inequality but what can be more unequal than transferring the Council Tax paid by ordinary folk, with limited or no works pension, to gold-plate the already gold-plated.

"Council pension schemes are top-notch. That’s good, and we’re not suggesting they should be cut back in any wa,y but enough is enough."

Cllr Dempsey said that the Conservative's proposal for a cap was ruled out on a technicality, but that it could have been sorted "if the council hadn’t rushed straight to the next item on the agenda."

Cllr David Alexander, SNP co-leader, said that Cllr Dempsey's proposal was not competent.

Councillor David Ross, Labour councillor and co-leader, said: "The Covid crisis will have a major impact on our budget for next year, and with health restrictions likely to stay in place for months if not years, the Council may be forced to undertake some restructuring.

"In that context it would be unfair on our workforce to implement these changes until we know what the impact of Covid on our services is going to be in the longer term. That’s why we agreed a delay in implementation until the end of September 2021."

Cllr Ross said he welcomed the new scheme as a way of helping retain jobs and services.

He added: "It is a choice between continuing to pay out for people to leave the council or investing that money to retain jobs within the council to help stop the cuts in services we have seen over the past 13 years and more.

"If people leave under the voluntary early redundancy policy, then their jobs cannot be replaced. That means a cut in services and extra strain on our remaining workforce.

"We have lost well over 2,000 jobs over the past 13 years. The fundamental issue is that we need to stop losing jobs and cutting services. That means the Scottish Government must provide fair funding for local services. "

The new scheme will only apply to voluntary redundancy and early retirement.

> Hannah Brown is the Local Democracy Reporter for Fife & Angus

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