Unitary status - staffing

Now that parliamentary approval has been granted for new unitary authorities in Cornwall, County Durham, Northumberland, Shropshire, Wiltshire and Cheshire, the complex task of getting the new councils up and running is under way. With the new authorities taking on the reigns of power from April 2009, the timetable is tight.

Of fundamental importance will be the question of how the new unitaries are to be staffed. While the majority of employees will transfer under TUPE or arrangements equivalent to TUPE, if Communities and Local Government is to be believed, the recruitment of chief executives and possibly chief officers will be open to free competition.

Some staff will find that their old jobs no longer exist and that equivalent openings in the new unitary are not on offer. The Government's ambition to create new authorities staffed with a 'hand picked' team is laudable and well understood.

However, the discontent with existing TUPE and redundancy rights is very marked. In the absence of primary legislation, it is hard to see how the legal rights of those individuals can be reconciled with the ministers' aspiration.

Nor does much thought appear to have been given to the local government reorganisation in the 1990s. The CLG appears to have forgotten all the learning from the last round, leading to many of the same mistakes being made, as well as a batch of new ones!

With issues of equal pay comparators, pensions strain and employment claims, converts will need urgently to review their redundancy policies once the new regulations are published.