One in 10 council employees re-hired
Bosses at Birmingham council have "lost control" of staff management after rehiring more than 200 people – despite spending thousands on making many of them redundant, it has been claimed.
The re-hiring of one in 10 council employees who who have taken early retirement or voluntary redundancy since 2015 was blasted by an opposition group leader as "poor management".
A total of 1,968 employees took either early retirement or voluntary redundancy since since 2015/16, Birmingham City Council has revealed.
The figures, releases in response to a Freedom of Information request, also show 233 had been re-hired by the council, maintained schools or academies.
The early exits have come as the council has come under consistent financial pressures, with more than £730m cut from its budget since 2010.
A total of 1,095 job losses were announced in early 2019, which brought the total to 13,000 since 2010 – half the council’s workforce.
Explaining the reasons for re-hiring, a city council spokesman said: “They have relevant skills, knowledge and networks which enable former employees to acclimatise quickly and contribute with different perspectives from across the organisation.”
The spokesman added the minimum time needed to elapse before an employee could be rehired was a year for voluntary redundancy, three years for voluntary redundancy with pension and four weeks for compulsory redundancy.
The cost to the council in terms of termination payments was £28 million.
The council was not able to give a figure for how many staff had been employed on a full-time, part-time or temporary basis without running over the maximum FOI timescale.
Commenting on the figures, Councillor Robert Alden, leader of the Conservative group, said “It paints a picture of a council that has lost control of its management of staff”.
He said: “Paying someone to take voluntary redundancy and then rehiring them as you realise you still need them is simply poor management of public money and staff by the council.
“It appears from the information the council may have in effect managed to spend nearly £3m sacking and then rehiring the same staff, equal to roughly one per cent of the council tax in the city.
“This is sadly just the latest in a long list of actions proving that Birmingham City Council desperately needs a change and new leadership.”
