30 September 2015
Voluntary Severance - City of Edinburgh Council
Dear colleague,
UNISON's Edinburgh Branch Committee has instructed
negotiators to seek to improve on the Council's
proposed terms for people seeking voluntary severance/redundancy.
Any job lost through any voluntary severance system
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
continue the campaign to oppose job losses 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 and we will
be pushing for the best possible terms for any form
of voluntary severance.
There are currently 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 40,000 council
jobs lost across Scotland.