800 council workers are made redundant

More than 800 council workers in the Midlands have been made redundant in recent months, figures show.

Employees have left positions through compulsory redundancy or by opting to leave their role through voluntary redundancy.

Union chiefs have warned that the cost-cutting move will hit services. Dudley Council announced plans at the start of the year to shed more than 400 jobs by next April as part of a bid to save £22 million. New figures released today show that 460 workers have now left the authority.

Of those, 404 left through voluntary redundancy, while 56 have gone through compulsory redundancy.

Bosses say they have managed to cut the number of people being forced to leave through compulsory redundancy by redeploying 29 workers.

Dudley Unison representative Steve Beardsmore said: "It will definitely affect services. We are only in the first year as well, it is going to get worse.

"At Dudley we have lost 400 this year, if we lose 400 next year and more the year after it is going to be desperate.

"They are jobs and money which are being taken out of the community."

In Wolverhampton between April and August this year 72 workers have gone through voluntary redundancy while a further 38 have left through compulsory redundancy.

At South Staffordshire Council bosses have been trying to save £1.1million from the payroll by deleting vacant posts, redundancies and flexible working.

Chief executive Steve Winterflood said: "Although we are only four months into what is a four-year plan, we have met our payroll reduction target, which includes 19 voluntary redundancies which are in addition to the 16 voluntary redundancies that were identified at the beginning of the year."