Fire authority chiefs have revealed that 63 members of backroom staff were made redundant last year in a cost-cutting restructure to save £2.5 million.

A report to West Yorkshire Fire Authority’s human resource committee next Friday reveals 13 employees were forced to take compulsory redundancy, while 50 volunteered to leave West Yorkshire Fire Service, as part of a ‘fundamental review’ of its structure in the face of Government budget cuts.

Last January, members of the authority were told the service was to begin a review and was warned a number of posts would be ‘deleted’.

The document said 50 members of staff requested voluntary severance and the majority of those left the organisation on October 7 last year, with the remaining employees leaving before March 31. The cost of the severance payments and pension costs totalled £1.4 million, although the authority said the cost had been offset by salary savings through staff leaving in October. The report said the changes will save £1.8 million on its wage bill in 2013-14, which would rise to £2.5 million once the review is fully implemented.

After a consultation with trade union Unison, an internal recruitment process began last August and September for employees who wanted to remain in the new ‘structure’ – with 90 members of staff placed into posts. But at the end of December 2012, anyone who had not been offered a new role and had not requested voluntary severance was served their notice of redundancy.

The report said there were initially 22 compulsory redundancies, but that had reduced to 13 because of vacancies created by people leaving the authority.

“Of those 13, five were members of staff who specifically chose to take compulsory redundancy instead of the enhanced severance package,” it added. “Furthermore, of the 13, ten agreed to sign compromise agreements and leave before their termination date of March 31, 2013. This left just three people whose employment would be terminated on compulsory redundancy on March 31.”

The report said 65 employees signed compromise agreements – with terms preventing staff taking the service to employment tribunals – including 50 who had taken voluntary severance, five who left the authority with a redundancy payment earlier than their agreed termination date and ten on ‘garden leave’. Further job cuts are expected when the service’s 999 call handling service moves from its Birkenshaw headquaters to new premises in Bramley in Leeds. A separate report to the meeting said the number of posts was expected to fall from 51 to 42, but that 11 members of staff had asked for voluntary redundancy when the service moves next year.