The chaotic restructure of the Neighbourhoods and Growth Directorate in Lambeth Council as now seen management deliberately taking action which makes compulsory redundancies more likely.

UNISON has repeatedly pointed out that management have failed to provide accurate information to enable meaningful consultation. This shows how little regard the management team have for Lambeth staff.

Yesterday (14 May) management added another last minute change! They are proposing that staff in generic reduction groups must be interviewed before there is any consideration of “expressions of interest” from staff.

This is contradicts previous custom and practice, and makes compulsory redundancies more likely!

UNISON has pointed out to management that expressions of interest happened before generic reductions in the following recent restructures:

Work Employment and Skills/Economic Inclusion team (2017)
Human Resources (2018)
Planning (2014)
Business Transformation  (2016)
Executive Support (2015)
Communities, Housing and Environment (2015)
Youth Offending Services (2017)

The council always asked for expressions of interest first as the best guarantee to reduce possible redundancies. Now this practice is being torn up by the N&G management who seem to believe they can do what they like.”

UNISON demanded that management guarantee not to make compulsory redundancies. Management could easily have agreed to this demand – since the number of vacancies in the new structure is very much larger than the number of staff at risk of redundancy – but they refused.

This means that – instead of giving all staff “at risk” a chance to go for other jobs, management want to pick and choose who to get rid of first. These are not the actions of an employer committed to minimising redundancies – and it is not the approach that was adopted just a few weeks ago in the reorganisation of Human Resources.

Why are Human Resources allowing staff in Neighbourhoods and Growth to be treated less favourably than they themselves were treated in their restructure last month?

If you are a UNISON member make sure you attend all UNISON meetings which are called to discuss our campaign against redundancies in Neighbourhoods and Growth.