Wigan Council let dozens of employees go last year

The Association of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers said job losses will continue across England because the Government does not see local councils as a priority.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show 35 exit packages, totalling £725,400, were awarded by Wigan Council in 2020-21. There were 80 staff laid off the previous year, at a cost of £1.5m.

The total value of exit packages nationally more than halved from £544m in 2016-17 to £252m last year in real terms.

Ian Miller, honorary secretary of the ALACE, said: “The higher spend between 2014 and 2017 reflects that councils were making very significant reductions in their workforce at that time as a result of the Government’s austerity programme which has cut funding for local government since 2010. Job cuts will continue because local government has not been a priority for this or previous governments.”

A Wigan Council spokesperson said: “It is always regrettable when redundancies need to be made but Wigan’s council’s position has been to work closely with TU colleagues and staff and seek to minimise compulsory redundancies and redeploy staff into alternative posts where possible.

“Redundancy payments are based on weekly earnings in accordance with redundancy procedures. Here at Wigan Council we always pay statutory redundancy and strive to ensure that we consult and engage with our workforce whilst also ensuring we can deliver services and offer good value for money to our residents.”

The town hall stressed that these figures depict Exit Packages and are not just purely compulsory redundancies for both council and school staff.

An exit package in this context is any payment made by way of compensation for loss of employment and any other payments made to or receivable by the person in connection with the termination of their employment; and is a one off payment for which savings are achieved over a longer term and has enabled Wigan Council to save £160m against savings to be achieved. Wigan Council only pays statutory redundancy payments.

Since 2014-15 nationally, the average cost of exit payments has risen by 31 per cent for senior employees – when adjusted for inflation – and 15 per cent for those below this level.

Mr Miller said costs for older employees tend to be higher as the local government pension scheme requires immediate payment of pension rights where someone over 55 is made redundant, or let go to make the council run more efficiently.

The figures were published as part of the Government’s research into ending “excessively high” exit payments in the public sector.

Legislation passed last year – which capped payments at £95,000 – was revoked in February after the Government admitted it may have had “unintended consequences” for the lowest paid workers

Mr Miller said the figures show there is no need for a cap when the average exit payment is just £26,703.

The average cost of all exit packages in Wigan last year was much lower, at £20,727 – up from £18,649 in 2019-20.

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