A broke Derbyshire town council faces court action after making nearly all its staff redundant in a shock move last week.
Unison, which represents the majority of the Staveley Town Council (STC) employees who lost their jobs on Friday (February 3), has announced plans to take the authority to court over non-payment of wages.
STC axed more than ten of its in a desperate attempt to save money after more than a decade of financial mismanagement has left it almost £500k in debt, but the union says its a ‘stab in the back’ of loyal employees.
Dave Gorton, Derbyshire UNISON area organiser said: “We are having to take the council to court over non-payment of wages, something which could result in more charges.
“No-one in the council has answered my question as to when the monies owed will be paid.
“I don’t think there’s any communication between officers and elected representatives over this matter or, indeed, others.
“It’s certainly difficult to know who is actually in charge.”
Councillor Paul Jacobs, who leads the STC Liberal Democrat group, described making redundancies as an ‘awful thing to have to do’, but added: “The stark facts however are that Staveley Town Council is bankrupt.
“It has a current deficit of up to £500k and was struggling to pay its staff and other bills in December let alone in January, February and March, before the new financial year starts in April.”
He said the decision to close the loss-making cafe had actually been made following a vote in November last year and accused the Independent leadership of ‘ignoring this’.
“On January 10, as the published minutes show, the council overwhelmingly voted (six Labour, three Lib Dems and three Independents against the leader and one other) to make redundancies that would reduce the staff bill from well over £300k to around £75k and so close the three loss-making enterprises that the council runs,” Coun Jacobs continued.
“Last Tuesday (January 31), the leadership of the council tried and failed to reverse this vote.”
He explained that without such ‘drastic action’ the authority would not be able to fulfil its legal requirement to set a balanced budget in time for the next financial year.
STC leader Councillor Paul Mann denied he had ignored the outcome of the November vote, saying the administration of it had taken time, commenting: “I have never ever overridden a council decision.”
He said he did attempt to have the decision reversed last week, believing there was a better way of addressing the council’s money woes, but was outvoted.
Coun Mann said he believed only the town clerk and a caretaker were left now, leaving him concerned they would be unable to carry out the day to day running of the council.
Unison says some staff have been told they will only receive redundancy money in instalments.
Mr Gorton continued: “Our members have been caught up in local political horse trading and have paid the ultimate penalty – their jobs – while councillors try and point score.
“Staveley councillors should be ashamed of their actions.
“The people of Staveley deserve better.”
