Plan to cut Wolverhampton Council staff's hours is scrapped

The cash-strapped city council had been planning to reduce the full time working week from 37 hours to 35 for two years so it could cut the wage bill.

It was also going to freeze incremental pay rises for staff.

See also: Wolverhampton Council spent £25k on study into shelved academy.

But the plan, which would have saved in excess of £5 million, was branded unworkable by the controlling Labour group.

The council has to save £123 million over five years and will make £27.1m of those savings in 2015/16.

Plans were revealed today to increase council tax by 1.99 per cent, the maximum permitted without holding a referendum, every year until 2018/19.

Finance boss Councillor Andrew Johnson said the temporary change in working hours would have caused 'incredible problems' and seen social workers and other staff leave for jobs elsewhere at a time when their workloads are growing.

"Other councils would still have been offering a 37 hour working week. We wouldn't have been able to compete," he said.

"It would have caused us incredible problems in retaining staff in key areas such as social work."

He said the council had originally come up with the plan when it was running out of money and was in danger of becoming insolvent.

Instead the council has been given permission from the district auditor to change the way it pays back its debts, treating them more like a mortgage and paying more off in later years rather than the same rate each year.

See also: Lowest paid at Wolverhampton Council accounted for 90% of redundancies.

"Over 25 years we will be better off," he said.

Adrian Turner from the Unison trade union said: "This is the first bit of good news council workers have had this year. We are still negotiating on other issues and will consult our members further."

The authority has also managed to save money on things such as the landfill taxes it has to pay for any rubbish that is not recycled.

It has done this after the company that manages the incinerator in Crown Street, where rubbish is turned into energy, carried out some maintenance and managed to increase the amount of waste that could be stored there before burning. The changes will save £240,000 in a year.

One member of staff in the markets service is set to be axed to save £25,000 a year and the council is trying to save £350,000 by trimming its senior management.

The authority's chief executive recently retired due to ill health so the council scrapped the post and created a managing director, saving £195,000.

Council workers still face the prospect of being charged for car parking and of being able to claim less money back for car mileage, however.

It is also still planned for them to forfeit a day's pay for the first day they call in sick.

And there are still controversial plans to save £480,000 a year by axing the 18 council-funded neighbourhood wardens who patrol the streets.