21 July 2015
Voluntary Severance - City of Edinburgh Council
Dear colleague,
As you will be aware the City of Edinburgh Council
is looking to replace the current Voluntary Release
(VR) Terms with a new Voluntary Severance Scheme.
UNISON has examined the proposals and, despite
Council claims of an ‘enhanced’ scheme,
the terms are either very similar to the basic statutory
minimum or slightly better. Having sought legal
advice there is no general claim of discrimination
in terms of the scheme offered but we will closely
monitor how it is being implemented.
The existing VERA and VR terms still apply for
now and the new terms will not apply until approved
by the Council’s Finance and Resources Committee
in September. Details, and the all important timescales,
will be available on the Council Orb.
Any job lost through Voluntary Release (VR) will
not be replaced and can only be viewed as a cut
to jobs and services or additional work being piled
on the staff left behind. We therefore must oppose
any form of redundancy in an effort to protect our
members.
However, we do understand that many of our members
may decide to leave their employment. With this
in mind, we will seek to ensure the Council provides
clarity to all members of staff to ensure that they
are able to make an informed choice.
There are different terms and amounts depending
on whether or not you are subject to organisational
review or not and also whether you are part of the
pension scheme. As such the issues for individual
members will often be particular to them in terms
of their personal circumstances and so general advice
will not always be helpful. We would therefore advise
members to consult with their managers and the Lothian
Pension Scheme in the first instance.
UNISON will continue to support all members thought
these difficult times.
We will also continue our campaigning with the
Scottish and UK governments for proper funding for
local government and an end to the savage cuts that
have seen services cut to the bone and 50,000 council
jobs lost across Scotland.
Amanda Kerr
Branch Secretary
UNISON City of Edinburgh