Wandsworth plans changes to staff T&Cs to save £1.5m a year

The London Borough of Wandsworth is proposing changes to staff terms and conditions that it believes could save the council up to £1.5m a year.

The principal proposals, which will be considered next week by its general purposes committee, include:

• No occupational sick pay should be paid for the first day of any absence, 80% of OSP entitlement should be paid for the second and third days and that the maximum entitlement is reduced to three months’ full pay and three months’ half pay
• Voluntary overtime should be reduced to time and a quarter (reduced from time and a half for Saturday and evening overtime and double time for bank holiday and Sunday overtime working)
• A charge for car parking should be introduced, a review conducted of posts in receipt of essential car user allowance and a reduction made in the amounts paid in car mileage
• A range of measures in relation to redundancy payments. These include: “reducing the level of multiplier for the severance payment; offsetting  the capital cost of mandatory early release of pension for those aged 55 and over by the discretionary element of severance; and paying statutory severance alone on the ending of fixed-term contracts”.

Deputy council leader Maurice Heaster said: “The council is having to face up to the difficult task of finding around £55m over the next four years as the nation gets to grips with the budget deficit. What we won’t do is to ask the council tax payer to pick up this tab. All our work is based on Wandsworth remaining a low tax council. This means pegging council tax increases to at or below the rate of inflation.”

He added: “Instead we will seek to trim staff costs wherever possible, while the reviews we have already started will undoubtedly lead to a leaner council with, almost certainly, a narrower range of services.”