Jobs are found for Sandwell housing workers

Just one out of 136 workers shed by Sandwell Homes under a multi-million pound savings drive was a compulsory redundancy, chiefs revealed today.

The organisation, which looks after the borough's 29,000 council homes, cut staff at the end of last year and announced in February this year that 96 more workers needed to be put at risk of redundancy.

Bosses need to save £6.6 million due toGovernment and council cuts. Paul Field, interim chief executive of Sandwell Homes, said: "So far, 136 employees have been made redundant, with only one of these being made compulsorily redundant.

"We have worked closely with employees and trades unions to avoid compulsory redundancies, using re-skilling and redeployment wherever possible.