Fife Police have been urged to rescind statutory redundancy notices issued to 250 civilian staff.
Fife Council leader Peter Grant made the extraordinary call, describing the force’s decision to start a 90-day consultation exercise as “premature.”
A police spokesman made it clear there was “no intention” to make all of the affected people redundant and that most posts would be restructured or redeployed.
He said the move was part of the force’s efficiencies programme to remodel working practices in line with budgetary challenges.
Mr Grant said the letters should not have gone out as the affected people were not employed by the force.
He said, “Fife Constabulary civilian staff are employees of Fife Council,” he said. “I would have expected that any decision to issue statutory redundancy notices about potential redundancies would have come from Fife Council.”
He said Fife’s political administration had not approved the issue of the redundancy notices. The police, fire and safety committee is to meet on September 15, when the proposals will be discussed.
Chief Constable Norma Graham said she too had a real desire to avoid redundancies.
“It is for that very reason, and in fairness to our staff, that the 90-day consultation period has been initiated,” she said.
“It would, of course, be inappropriate to start detailed consultation with other parties without advising staff first.”
Tayside Police had not responded to Courier inquiries yesterday but previous messages from the force suggest staff cuts are on the horizon. £4.3 million of budget savings are required.