2,000 council staff in NI face being furloughed, warns union

Alan Perry, a GMB organiser who represents workers in negotiations with all 11 councils in Northern Ireland, said all but two councils have now discussed moving to furlough workers.

Mr Perry said trade unions are largely welcoming of the furlough scheme being made available to public sector workers, but warned that the dire financial situation that councils now find themselves in could mean “large scale” job losses without government intervention.

This follows a warning earlier this week from the chief executive of the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA), Derek McCallan, who said councils are likely to collapse to the financial impact of the pandemic unless Stormont steps in.

Mr McCallan, in an interview with the News Letter, said: “Our focus at the minute is on avoiding the institutional collapse of the 11 councils.

“Without intervention that’s a probability.”

Mr Perry said: “I would deal with all the councils and there’s a number who have already indicated that they are proceeding with furloughing.

“The others are in the process of discussing it with the unions, across all the 11 councils - the only exceptions are ABC council (Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon) and Belfast.

“All the others have already started to furlough or are in the process of discussion with the unions and I would expect the other two to follow suit.”

The union organiser said the number of people to be furloughed could be as high as 2,000 across Northern Ireland.

“Some of the councils are bigger than others and obviously have more staff but I think it could be in and around 2,000 across all 11,” he said.

“Obviously we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future with the furlough scheme. We are hearing rumours of when it is coming to an end but we don’t know.

“Of course with the financial situation facing the councils we are worried about what will happen when we look a bit further ahead.

“You could be looking at large-scale job losses.”

To date, Fermanagh and Omagh, Mid Ulster, and Derry City and Strabane councils have confirmed their intentions to furlough a combined total of around 750 staff.

The Department for Communities at Stormont has said it will “consider” NILGA proposals for financial support for councils.