More NI councils poised to furlough staff

Eight of Northern Ireland’s 11 local councils have already announced furlough schemes for permanent staff.

The GMB trade union say the remaining three councils – Lisburn and Castlereagh, Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon and Belfast City – are likely to furlough staff in the near future.

Alan Perry, GMB organiser, said all but two councils have agreed to ‘top up’ the wages of furloughed staff to ensure they receive their full pay rather than the 80% under-written by the UK Treasury.

Antrim and Newtownabbey Council and the Causeway Coast and Glens Council have opted not to pay the remaining 20% of staff wages.

But the situation is unclear in the Causeway Coast and Glens, where Sinn Fein launched an attempt to block the decision not to pay staff more than the 80% offered by Westminster through a process known as a ‘call-in’.

The call-in allows a group of councillors to challenge any decision on legal grounds and, if successful, will overturn the decision not to ‘top up’ furloughed workers wages.

Mr Perry, who works for the GMB across all 11 councils, outlined the situation across Northern Ireland in an interview with the News Letter.

“Belfast City Council have agreed to top-up the wages in relation to the staff they intend to furlough, to keep them at 100%.

“They are definitely going to furlough a number of staff towards the end of this week.

“It covers a wide range of departments within the council – building control, planning, markets, catering, tour guides, dog control, pest control, Belfast Castle, Malone House, Belfast Zoo, and then there’s the staff who would be covered in the normal rounds of furlough across all councils.”

He continued: “That would just leave Lisburn and Castlereagh and the ABC (Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon) councils as the only two not to confirm the furlough of permanent staff.

“Lisburn and Castlereagh announced that they are going to furlough all casual and agency staff, but not yet permanent staff.

“That would leave ABC as the only council – but by the end of this week I would expect all councils to have furloughed permanent staff.”

The moves to furlough workers come following a warning from the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) earlier this month that councils could collapse due to the strain placed on them by the coronavirus pandemic.

NILGA chief executive Derek McCallan told the News Letter the loss of income from leisure centres and other venues, increased waste removal costs and what he said is likely to be a drastic cut in rates income due to the wider economic downturn associated with the coronavirus lockdown could see councils facing “institutional collapse”.