STAFF affected by the council’s fire and rehire plans say the cuts are unlikely to deliver £500,000 in savings.

That’s the amount Worcestershire County Council is looking to save by cutting the hours of about 150 employees.

The Conservative-run council is under pressure from Labour and the Lib Dems to abandon the policy, which will see workers dismissed from their 37-hour contracts next month and re-hired on 35-hour deals.

Opposition councillors and union bosses have said the controversial policy, which the government is trying to ban, will damage the reputation of the council.

But staff say their top concern is that it won’t even save the authority as much money as has been claimed.

READ MORE: Council under pressure to reverse fire and rehire process

READ MORE: Worcestershire County Council to fire and rehire 150 staff

One employee said: “We don’t believe [the actual amount] is anywhere near the £500,000 the council is claiming.”

Staff, who don’t want to be named, say at least six people have been ruled as “no longer in scope” since the council came up with its headline figure.

“A number of roles are self-financing,” they said. “External parties are charged for their services and that income pays for their salaries.

“If you reduce those hours, you can’t just spend that money on something else.

“The £500,000 figure also assumes none of the roles will be backfilled. Nearly everyone at the county council works more hours than they are paid for. What if the cuts have gone too far? We are in a retention and recruitment crisis already.”

There are concerns within the council that expensive agency staff could be used to fill in for lost staff hours - and that the cuts will have an impact on public services.

Jack Kay, regional organiser for Unison West Midlands, said the union supports the motion being raised at this week’s council meeting to reverse the fire and rehire policy.

He said Unison “hopes that cabinet sees sense in reversing this decision".

“We have been clear from the start that these minimal savings are not worth the reputational damage which this will impact on employees," he said.

“We are still supporting our members in fighting this issue and still hope to enter into meaningful negotiations to find a solution, should the council be open to this.”

We asked Worcestershire County Council if it had a business case for the policy or could provide a breakdown of the £500,000 in savings.

We also asked if the council had carried out a cost benefit analysis or risk assessment looking at the impact on services before embarking on the process.

A spokesperson said: “There were a number of reasons why the proposals were considered with financial savings being just one of them.

“A wide range of information was considered pre, during and post consultation to inform the decision.”