Islington Tribune - News: Jobs switch will allow £10m offices sell-off

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Islington Tribune - by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 4 April 2008

Jobs switch will allow £10m offices sell-off

Property deal ‘real reason for move’

A REPORT into the Town Hall’s controversial decision to switch 69 jobs to Manchester reveals that the move will free up four multi-million pound buildings so they can be sold.
Trade union officials are fuming at the revelation, included in a copy of the council’s business plan, seen by the Tribune this week. The plan confirms for the first time that redundancies may be unavoidable.
The switch of jobs to Ashton-under-Lyne, in Greater Manchester, will save the council £145,000 a year in wages and office running costs.
The report says the relocation of part of the parking services team would allow the sale of Old Street office blocks which are “the highest value part of the council’s property portfolio”.
It is predicted the sale will bring in more than £10 million for the council.
Lib Dem adult social care chief Councillor John Gilbert said last month that the jobs move was necessary because no one in Islington was willing to fill the posts while people in Ashton were prepared to do the work at a cheaper rate.
Vaughan West, branch secretary of the GMB trade union, said: “We don’t accept the case has been made for moving staff up to Ashton. The real reason remains – and this is included in the business plan – to sell off the four properties in Old Street so they can make millions out of it.”
He added: “They said there would be no redundancies. They are unable to guarantee this and this makes us suspicious. This remains the thin end of the wedge. In 12 months they will be coming to us with proposals to move other staff.
“We remain opposed to this move. There’s no argument to suggest there are better-trained staff in Manchester than London. I’m still convinced the main reason is to sell off real estate.”
Jane Doolan, Unison branch secretary, said: “The business plan gives the impression all these posts are agency. This is deliberately misleading. Staff face a real possibility of redundancy. [Chief executive] Helen Bailey stated at last week’s executive the only guarantee she would give is that staff would have the ‘opportunity’ to apply for other jobs... assuming they exist.”
She added: “It is clear the reason for choosing staff in parking services is to free up for sale prime property in Old Street.”
But Cllr Gilbert insisted: “The primary reason we’re doing this is because of service efficiencies because these jobs we’re moving are hard to fill locally.
“It will enable us to sell Old Street but the sale isn’t dependent on this. We could move them to other offices in Islington if we had to. They are certainly occupying some of the most expensive office space in the borough so it makes sense to relocate them to a lower-cost location.”
He would not give a cast-iron guarantee that there would be no redundancies but the council was “bending over backwards” to prevent them.

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