Fife Council staff 'shouldn't pay cost' of coronavirus with their jobs

Fife Council staff shouldn’t face job cuts or redundancies as a result of the massive coronavirus bill it faces.

David Ross, co-leader, said today they “should not pay the cost” of battling the pandemic.

The local authority is facing a net bill of £50m so far, and that could mean some tough calls to get budgets back on track as lockdown restrictions are eased.

It has authorised Steve Grimmond, chief executive, and Eileen Rowlands, executive director of finance, to control costs - but decisions on any impact on services will remain with councillors.

The policy and co-ordination committee today agreed to call on both the Scottish and UK Governments to provide additional funding to local authorities.

It also wants extra borrowing powers to be handed to Holyrood to help them through the pandemic.

It may be several months yet before Fife gets a clear picture of the final cost.

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Eileen Rowland said she was “comfortable” the £50m-plus gap could be brought down, but it wouldn’t be eradicated completely.

She added: “By July-August we will have a clearer picture of costs this financial year and firm it up in terms of strategy.”

While officers manage the recovery, the final decisions which may impact on services will rest with councillors.

Cllr Ross said there was a “massive financial challenge” ahead.

“For the good of Fife, the last thing is we want to do is shed jobs and make people redundant,”he said. “That will have a negative impact on our economy and start a circle of decline.

Our staff have put so much effort into managing this emergency. They should not pay the cost going forward. Keeping staff in employment puts money in their pockets which they spend with local businesses. We need to support local economy, local firms and job”

Cllr Ross said even if officers manage budgets, the council could still be facing a £30m-£40m shortfall.

He added: “That puts the reality against claims we are getting all the money we need from the Scottish Government or that we should use our reserves. That isn’t the case.

“We have taken first steps towards a financial strategy. A lot of work been done behind the scenes to come up with a base to make informed judgements and choices.

“Delegating to our CEO and finance director isn’t a long term solution. There are political decisions to be made and those ares down to councillors.

“Staying in budgets could be interpreted as directors having authority to make cuts to services. That is absolutely not the case. We cannot go down that route.”

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Allan Crow, Editor, Fife Free Press