Highland Council plans early weekend to save cash
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PROPOSALS have been drawn up to shut all council buildings - including schools - half day on a Friday.
The controversial move devised by Highland Council’s ruling administration could save around £8 million and could become effective next year.
Council sources says £3.9 million would be saved by closing all council buildings earlier in the week, reducing cleaning, heating and other costs.
And a further £4.1 million would be saved by shutting schools half day on a Friday, in a move that could effectively cut teaching time for primary school pupils by 2.5 hours-per-week.
The teaching union has voiced concern but council leader Margaret Davidson said she wanted to speak with staff affected by the proposed changes before making any formal comment.
She did not rule out the proposed cuts but said it was important to remember that all budget proposals were "only proposals at this stage" - and there would be no compulsory reduction in working hours. Staff would volunteer if they wanted to cut their hours or they could work flexi-time to retain their hours.
The proposals are understood to be on a draft budget paper drawn up by the leading Independents administration group, which some opposition councillors have had sight of.
A councillor, who wanted to remain unnamed, said: "There’s a proposition just now to reduce the council week by half-a-day by closing all the buildings at Friday lunch-time. There would be no loss of salary to any member of staff, they would have to work the two-and-a-half hours through the week, it would be flexible working, unless of course they wanted to take a salary sacrifice."
He added: "The reality is that on Friday afternoons there’s hardly anybody left in the buildings anyway so it means we are heating the buildings so by shutting them that bit early we would be making a huge huge saving."
Bob Coleman, secretary of the Highland branch of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), was also worried about the impact on youngster’s education - and on teaching jobs.
He said: "If you add up that half day that’s a significant amount of education that the primary pupils would be losing. And there is probably a threat to the jobs of visiting teachers who are coming in to the schools and providing drama, art, music and PE. When this was previously mooted as a possible budget savings I challenged this on the grounds of the loss of teacher jobs and the subjects that they would be losing education in."
Plans by the previous SNP-led administration to shorten the school week by 2.5 hours were scrapped after meeting fierce opposition from the union and many parents.
The council is currently trying to find ways to meet a forecast budget deficit for the next three financial years of £46.3 million.
However, SNP Cllr Maxine Smith, Leader of the Opposition, said: "Firstly it is extremely important to remember that people take on jobs that they can fit around balancing their work with having a life and for many who have families it is not possible for them to start work at 7 or 8am.
"Employees who want to start work early are already doing so under the Flexible Working terms.
"Secondly, I do not think this will produce ‘energy’ savings as buildings still need to be cleaned, which will necessitate using electricity and having heated buildings.
"I think it is appalling that the members learned about this considered proposal for savings via a Highland Council press release sent out late today. This should have been something that was discussed in our briefings with the Administration.
"I am so disappointed that this is being brought forward for consideration just before Christmas, raising huge concerns amongst the workforce, at a time when they are already stressed about finances."
