UNION leaders have accused West Somerset Council of being "heartless" for considering a review of its redundancy and retirement packages ahead of impending job cuts.

The district branch of UNISON, which represents public sector workers, this week fired a warning shot across the bows of the district authority, which is being asked to consider possible changes.

In a statement to the council's scrutiny committee on Monday, branch secretary Janet Grieve said the content of a report by human resources consultant Martin Griffin clearly indicated that any proposals for changes to the severance arrangements were likely to be those that reduced the current entitlement.

Under the council's present policy, an employee receives a lump sum of 90 weeks' pay if they are made redundant - known as a three times multiplier - or up to 60 weeks if their contract is terminated in the interests of efficiency - a two times multiplier.

This compares with the 104 weeks' provision allowed in the national regulations.

Ms Grieve said currently an employee aged 40, earning £16,000 and with ten years' service with the council could expect a redundancy pay-out of £9,210.

If the multiplier was reduced to two, the pay-out would be cut to £6,140 and to £3,070 with a multiplier of one.

She said that in recent years as the council had striven to meet the efficiency savings required the number of staff had been reduced.

"In the last two years alone the number of full time equivalent staff has been reduced by almost 16 per cent, from 113.82 in 2008 to the present figure of 95.86.

"Yet these staff are still delivering the same high quality service to the residents of West Somerset as in 2008."

Ms Grieve said that having been told quite categorically that there would be more redundancies, UNISON felt it was the wrong time to review the current arrangements.

"Many employees wear more than one hat and give over 100 per cent with very little complaint but are sympathetic to the council's plight," said Ms Grieve.

"It would therefore seem a heartless process to place employees into a very uncertain and worrying situation at this moment in time."

Employment prospects in Somerset, as in the South West and nationally, are said by UNISON to be the worst for 30 years.

"A reasonable redundancy settlement is therefore vital to allow redundant employees time to seek alternative employment and to cushion them and their families from the impact of the loss of their livelihood," said Ms Grieve.

"Knowing that redundancies are on the higher side of the probable, it would seem pretty heartless to consider reducing redundancy and retirement policies at this moment in time.

"Ultimately, if further reductions in staff and the consequent reduction on service provision are implemented in West Somerset, the viability of the council will need to be considered.

"We need to remain vigilant to the real effect the economic downturn is having, not only on the people of West Somerset but also to the people who deliver the services."

Scrutiny committee chairman Cllr Neil Parbrook told the meeting that he was not convinced that now was the right time to undertake a review.

He said the current arrangements had only been in place since 2008 and there could be a perception that any review was being politically driven to finance cuts.

"If there is a problem, this is not the right way to tackle it."

And Cllr Ian Melhuish said the report from Mr Griffin did not contain any concrete proposals which councillors could debate.

"We could be accused of trying to fiddle the system before we know where we are - I think this is a bridge too far."

Mr Griffin told councillors they were simply being asked if the current arrangements should be reviewed and not to discuss the detail of any possible changes.

He said Somerset County Council had reduced its 'multiplier' from three to two and was considering going down to one, while other district authorities had made no changes as yet.

But Cllr Parbrook described the county council as a "different kettle of fish" with 16,000 staff, compared to West Somerset's 100.

Cllr Doug Ross said the current policy was thought to be fair to staff and affordable to taxpayers when it was introduced.

"I am very unwilling to rock the boat at this stage," he said.

Cllr Ross said with more joint working between councils a distinct possibility, any review should be put off until a later date.

"We don't want to introduce a great deal of uncertainty for our staff - I think we should leave things as they are for the time being."

Cllr Kate Kravis, lead member for finance, said redundancy was an awful thing to have to discuss but the council's financial problems were far from sorted.

"The battle is not over and, through no fault of our own, it is about to get a whole lot worse."

Cllr Kravis said the council would be working hard to keep even its statutory services going and it was important that West Somerset was not left behind if other district councils "moved on" with severance settlements.

"The sad fact is that more money spent on redundancy will mean less spent on services."

Cllr Tony Knight said the arrangements for West Somerset staff should not be better or worse than other authorities in the county: "They should be on a par," he said.

Councillors voted not to undertake a review at present but to keep an eye on other councils' arrangements.

But they agreed that appraisal arrangements for executive director Adrian Dyer, corporate director Bruce Lang and group managers should be reviewed, along with proposals for the creation of a remuneration committee to look at pay policy, senior pay and associated matters.

Reports on both these issues would be prepared by Mr Griffin.

However, decisions on all the matters will be taken by the council's cabinet and council in the next few weeks.