Proposals by Dorset County Council to make thousands of workers take 12 days’ unpaid leave per year as part of plans to save £55 million by 2013/14 have been branded “outrageous” by the union.

 
The unpaid leave, which would be implemented among the local authority’s 6,500 staff in calendar years 2012 and 2013 on top of existing holiday entitlement, amounts to a salary cut of 4.6%. The aim is to bring the move in alongside reductions in payments for working unsociable hours.
 
Five hundred jobs are also set to go, but it is hoped that the introduction of unpaid leave will save a further 155 posts. Staff and unions will be consulted from 24 January until 26 April on the changes to working conditions, which are expected to save at least £4.4 million out of a target £55 million. The bulk of the savings (£31.1 million) are expected to be made in 2011/2012.
 
The Conservative-led Council said it would also freeze vacancies and seek voluntary redundancies, but that some forced job losses would be inevitable.
 
Resources chief Councillor Spencer Flower described the proposed changes as “the least worst option”. He told the Bournemouth Echo: “The changes to terms and conditions are a really positive approach to trying to sustain the services we would otherwise have to cut and the jobs we would otherwise have to lose. On balance, it’s a much better approach than losing 155 jobs or losing services the public might enjoy.”
 
But Pam Jefferies, branch secretary for the Dorset branch of Unison, branded the suggestions as “outrageous” and said that the Council’s staff were being continually asked to pay for the country’s budget deficit when they had done nothing to cause the problem.
 
“The reduced leave equates to a pay cut. The reduction in pay for unsocial hours will affect the lower paid. It’s bad news all round for staff,” she added.
 
The proposals will only affect Council personnel rather than school staff, which make up the bulk of its 15,000 payroll.