Reducing the working week and closing council offices for half a day are among ideas being considered by Fife Council as it seeks to balance the books.
The Labour administration has published draft budget proposals which aim to help close a £38.8 million budget gap for 2016/17.
With the shortfall estimated to be as much as £91.5m by 2018/19, every area of council business is being examined.
Savings options of £9.5m, possible budget savings, “temporary” savings, and cutting funding to health and social care by £5m in light of the Scottish Government’s pledge to health and social care services should see the local authority meet its 2016/17 financial target.
Labour’s proposals are being consulted on ahead of the budget meeting on February 11.
With the financial picture remaining bleak moving into 2017/18 and 2018/19, council chiefs have identified further areas that might offer savings, some of which have already been the subject of “initial review work”.
According to the draft proposals, a 30-minute reduction to the working week could claw back an estimated £6m, and could be implemented as early as the second half of 2016/17.
This has been adopted by other organisations and has been seen as a “preferable alternative to a number of employees losing their jobs”, the papers state. It would not include teaching staff who operate on national terms and conditions.
Another option would be to close council offices for half a day a week, although further work is required to quantify the savings and impact.
Council leader David Ross said: “In terms of these proposals, these are very much not in tablets of stone.
“We have a significant overall financial challenge, and this is the best we can do in terms of getting these proposals out there as the basis of serious debate.”
According to the draft proposals, the initial estimated budget gap of £38.8m for 2016/17 could be met through various means.
A review of “model assumptions”, which include loan charges, council tax income and money for contingencies, has revised the budget gap down to £29.4m.
Savings options totalling £9.5m have been identified to help fill the shortfall, leaving around £20m to find.
That figure could be halved by the £5m reduction in funding to health and social care proposed, with Fife set to receive a £16.8m share of the £250m pledged to local authorities, and around £5.4m of further possible budget savings highlighted in the draft papers.
The remaining £10m or so could be found through “temporary” savings.
Around £3m of that would come from vacancy management, £2.7m from a reduction in supplies and services, £1.1m in a reduction in roads maintenance, £1m from a cut in buildings maintenance and the rest from reviewing the capital plan, trust funding and inflation.
However, Mr Ross warned that the temporary savings are very much “one-off” and would not impact on the budget gap beyond 2016/17.