'Scunnered' Highland Council workers might lack motivation claim
Highland Council staff who have been refused redundancy for the second year in a row must be supported, councillors have warned.
Just 26 people were accepted for the Highland Council’s early release scheme, despite more than 300 people applying, leaving employees disappointed and demotivated, according to opposition councillors.
This comes after 811 people applied for voluntary redundancy last year, but only 340 were accepted.
During the budget meeting on Thursday leader of the opposition Maxine Smith said one employee resigned immediately after hearing she had been refused for the second time.
"A lot of people who applied will also have applied last year and were disappointed," the Cromarty Firth councillor said.
"I have been hearing that people are really disappointed.
"Some were so scunnered that one social worker resigned the next day after hearing she hadn’t been accepted again. That is not a good message to give our employees.
"We need to be a lot more careful in future, not take people’s expectations and dash them at the last minute."
She was backed up by Inverness South councillor Carolyn Caddick, who has a background in human resources.
"There are a huge number of people sitting very disappointed," she said. "I understand it’s better to keep the staff because we need to protect the services but some staff have now been through this twice.
"If I have thought about it [redundancy] deeply, twice now, am I as committed as I was before?
"I am glad we’re keeping them but we need to be supportive."
Under the scheme employees applied for 26 weeks basic pay and access to a reduced pension payment in exchange for resignation or early access to a full pension from the age of 55, instead of the current early retirement minimum age of 60.
Payments up to £30,000 will not be subject to tax and some staff, including some teachers and NHS staff, were exempt.
