FOI Reveals Over £2million Spent On Council Employee Redundancy Pay

Over two million pounds has been spent completing redundancies for Council employees in the last two years.

A Freedom of Information Request (FOI) submitted to Wrexham Council by Wrexham.com has revealed that from January 1st 2012 to December 31st 2013, £2,315,038 was spent on Council employee redundancy pay. This includes settlements, pay-off’s etc.

Within the same period the FOI revealed that 186 employees took redundancy. Of the 186, one person signed a confidentiality agreement.

Along with this, Wrexham.com also requested information on the number of ex employees who had reapplied successfully for new jobs at Wrexham Council in the period.

From the 186 ex employees that took redundancy, one person has been employed in a ‘school based job’.

Back in December Wrexham.com reported that Wrexham Council had received 368 voluntary early retirement or voluntary redundancy following a ‘workforce wide’ invitation.

From the 368 applications some were retracted by staff members, not supported or did not meet Council criteria.

In total 54 people were accepted, with total annual savings of £1.8 million

Speaking about employee redundancy, Council Leader, Neil Rogers said: “The Council is faced with a need to make major savings. It has a package of measures including voluntary redundancy and an exercise was undertaken last year which formed part of this. The costs incurred are more than offset by the direct savings made as a result.

“Overall, the Council has made savings of £10.8m in its 2014/15 budget. Generally when people retire from the Council’s employment they are not re-employed by the Authority.”