Barnsley jobs facing axe from £16m cuts

Barnsley Council announced today that 300 jobs are under threat because it needs to save £16.5 million over the next year. A 90-day consultation with staff and unions has begun.

Labour leader of the council Steve Houghton said it was "very bad news" for staff affected by redundancy and for the public as services will be chopped back.

A council spokeswoman told the Star that staff across the council are at risk and will be talking to line mangers about possibly being able to switch jobs.

But Paul Wade from the GMB said he feared some of the redundancies could be compulsory.

Mr Wade said he was told by the council that workers' terms and conditions would also be reviewed.

He said: "We've got to reduce the amount of redundancies. The proposal to cut terms and conditions is not clear whether that is linked to the amount of redundancies."

Mr Houghton said: "This is year three of the cuts. We've already saved £30m.

"Next year we've got to save another £16.5m. The cuts just keep going on and on and on."

Meantime, GMB was organising an emergency meeting at Sheffield last night after receiving formal notification letters from both Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Homes over new terms and conditions for workers.

Also, Barnsley Council home carers held a meeting recently organised by GMB and unanimously agreed to fight any compulsory redundancies.

They said they'll ballot for strike action if any member faces compulsory redundancy if unsuccessful in getting one of the jobs due to become available in the new Home Assessment and Reablement Team project.

GMB Barnsley branch secretary Henry Rajch said: "This really shows the strength of feeling among a group of workers who care very much for those they look after but with the real possibility of carers being sacked by the council there is no alternative but to fight."