Shropshire Council is still likely to push through job cuts even if workers accept a 5.4 per cent pay cut this autumn, union leaders claimed today.

Alan James, branch secretary for Shropshire Unison, said he was concerned that the planned salary reduction and changes to terms and conditions proposed by the authority would not save jobs in the long-term.

The authority has sent out letters to about 6,500 workers explaining they will be dismissed on September 30 – but rehired the next day if they agree to a 5.4 per cent pay cut and new terms and conditions.

Council leaders said they needed to make £76 million of savings and the wage-cut proposals would spare them having to make up to 500 redundancies.

But Mr James said he was concerned that job cuts were still being planned, especially after reports that the council was preparing to pay out £6.5 million in redundancy costs.

The council said last week that the money would be spent footing the bill for an “ongoing management restructure” that it claimed would save the authority £5.5 million a year from 2012/13.

“We have been told that the only reason we are doing this is to save 400 jobs that will have to be made redundant, therefore the whole workforce has to take a pay cut,” Mr James said.

“But there is so much misinformation coming out of Shirehall.”

He said that “without a doubt” further jobs would be cut at the local authority after the pay cut had been enforced.

“There is no doubt about it whatsoever. And this is not just the pay cut, it’s about things like our holidays and overtime. This isn’t about saving money, it’s about stripping us down.”

Mr James said he was concerned about plans to share services with other organisations in some council departments, which he claimed would “decimate” staff numbers in the affected departments.

“The public is being sold this as overpaid under-worked council workers taking a pay cut – that is not the case. We have never had such a massive amount of work. People have left but their work is still there.”

Unison recently balloted its members about strike action, with the results of the vote expected this week.

Earlier this week, Mr James said the ballot should give the union a “very clear idea” of whether to go ahead with a further vote on strike action.

By Chris Burn