Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council offering voluntary redundancies again

Last August all 10,000 council employees were offered voluntary redundancy under the Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS).

However, after months of employees deciding whether to leave or stay, the council withdrew the offer in November. In January, the council confirmed at least 600 jobs would be cut from the organisation.

Now, workers in children's services, the youth service, SEND provision, the careers service and other departments earmarked for budget cuts have begun to receive voluntary redundancy offers, lower than last year's MARS scheme.

Birmingham City Council confirmed the new round of voluntary redundancies.

A spokesman said: "A targeted voluntary redundancy scheme has been opened to employees working within services that are seeing proposals for workforce reductions or changes, as a result of the budget savings that the council is having to make.

"The voluntary redundancy scheme and proposed payment arrangements are enhanced from the statutory minimum for voluntary redundancy payments."

The redundancy settlements in the latest round of redundancies are reportedly lower than the MARS offers, which would have seen directors walk away with bumper cash pay-offs.

Lee-Wiggetts-Clinton, Unite Rep at Birmingham City Council, is urging members not to take the voluntary redundancy offers.

He said: "It is crazy at the moment. I did not like MARS. And I don't these lower settlements offered. Obviously, defending on people's circumstances a voluntary offer could work.

"But I am telling members, 'tell them to shove their voluntary offers where the sun don't shine, wait for the bounty of compulsory'."

Labour councillors passed a budget packed with budget cuts and department restructuring earlier this month. The council is in financial dire straits after several financial disasters including a massive historic equal pay claim from female workers and wasting more than £100m on the ill-fated IT system Oracle.