27 January 2006
The outsourcing company planning to shift hundreds of council jobs from London to the Scottish Highlands will not offer skilled staff equivalent positions in the capital if they refuse to move 580 miles north.
Senior officers at Westminster City Council this week confirmed that Vertex, which operates a £1bn contract for the London borough, could simply offer staff any vacant job if they reject a transfer.
Vertex wants to cut costs by shifting at least 160 staff posts to Dingwall, northwest of Inverness. It has said it would offer all staff who reject moves to Scotland 'the opportunity to remain… in Westminster or other locations in the Southeast'.
But Vic Bayliss, Westminster's director of customer services initiatives (CSI), told Public Finance that he expected 'few, if any' London employees to request transfers to Dingwall.
Asked whether the council would guarantee staff equivalent positions elsewhere in the Southeast, Bayliss added: 'No. Vertex has been very clear from the outset that, under the terms of the CSI contract, that is not required.'
The town hall union Unison has demanded that Westminster rescinds its plan, claiming that 400 staff could be affected. The union said the decision would effectively make hundreds of staff redundant and the council confirmed that staff would be offered voluntary redundancy packages.
The first transfers, involving parking officers, are planned for this summer, while specialist licensing staff could be moved within 18 months. Community protection, library and refuse posts could also be involved.
In a letter published this week, councillor Robert Davis, Westminster's member responsible for the CSI, said the council's hand had been forced by Sir Peter Gershon's 2004 efficiency review.
Bayliss said that councils must find annual savings of £6.5bn by 2008, and that had made the provision of cheaper, first-class services a 'prerequisite'.
'We're an “excellent” rated local authority and to retain that status, and the high degree of customer satisfaction we have among residents, we need to find ways of maintaining levels of service for less money.'
PFjan2006
