Around 2000 jobs are likely to be lost at Fife Council over the next three years as the local authority continues its efforts to close a £77 million budget gap, the council’s leader said.
Labour councillor David Ross said every effort would be made to reduce staff costs through a mixture of voluntary redundancy, early retirement and vacancy management however, he confirmed compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out.
Speaking as the Labour administration launched its draft budget proposals for 2015-18 on Tuesday, Mr Ross said: “It is inevitable that there will be a reduction in the number of jobs within the council over the next three years.
“By managing this budget reduction over the full three-year period we hope that as far as possible we will be able to manage this reduction in jobs through natural turnover, redeployment, early retirement and voluntary redundancy.
“If we did not take this approach and if we put off identifying the full savings required until the last moment in 2016-17 and 2017-18, then it is likely that the council would have to resort to significant compulsory redundancies and this is something we want to avoid if possible.”
For full coverage of the draft budget meeting, see Wednesday’s Fife edition of The Courier.