Union anger over bill for recruitment consultants
Thursday 18th August 2011, 12:19AM BST.
Shropshire Council has spent more than £75,000 on hiring recruitment consultants – despite having a dedicated team which could do exactly the same job, union chiefs claimed today.
Alan James, branch secretary of Shropshire Unison, said the authority had made a number of payments, published on its own website, to the same firm between October 2010 and April this year.
He said: “If we are told every penny counts, why are we spending money on recruitment consultants? If we are paying these consultants what is the HR department doing?”
Mr James said Timothy James Consulting Ltd was paid £7,600 in October, £20,000 in November, £22,500 in January, £8,800 in February and £16,500 in April.
Richard Mycroft, head of human resources at the council, said: “In-house resources were already working very hard to redeploy existing staff within the council at a time of great change.”
Timothy James Consulting declined to comment.
Meanwhile, a ballot for strike action at the council has been delayed by up to a week because of complex legal rules, Unison said today. Ballot papers were due to be sent out today by the union in a dispute with the authority over proposed pay cuts and new terms and conditions for staff.
But Mr James said the need to comply with stringent legislation concerning the ballot had put the process back by a few days.
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