Demand from staff to leave will take cuts to 8,000 this year, but unions accuse ministry of 'short-termism gone mad'
The Ministry of Defence is to double the number of civilian staff it makes redundant this year to 8,000 after a surge in demand from staff wanting to take a redundancy package. But the move has prompted warnings that the back-offices to the armed services could become understaffed.
Unions claimed they had received private assurances just last month that the number of staff taking advantage of "early release schemes" would not be increased from the planned 4,000 for this year because it would be too risky considering the forces' commitments abroad.
But the MoD insistedon Thursday it was simply responding to a greater than expected demand for redundancy, enabling it to fast-track some of the 25,000 redundancies planned for the next four years. It said the job losses would be carefully managed to ensure no area of the services would be under-resourced.
"The overall number of civil servants being reduced has not changed and remains at 25,000 over four years," said a spokesperson. "However, owing to the very high number of applications received for the voluntary early release scheme, we are looking at whether we can release more people earlier than originally intended. This will not adversely affect the work of the department."
Steve Jary, national secretary of the union Prospect, which represents many civilian MoD workers, said: "A few weeks ago, the MoD ruled out any increase on the 4,000 figure this year, saying it would be too risky to let more staff go in the current operational climate.
"Suddenly, it is seized with panic and doubles the scale of job losses before it has even got approval from the Treasury to pay the redundancy bills. This is indicative of a department that has lost its ability to cope with the financial pressures it is facing. It is short-termism gone mad."
The ministry originally planned to lose 4,000 civilian posts in 2011-12, 8,000 in 2012-13 and 3,500 in 2013-14. Five thousand more posts would be lost through privatisation and the remainder of the 25,000 target would be lost by natural wastage.
It is understood the amount the department is making available to pay for the redundancies is being doubled, suggesting the total number of redundancies will double. However, if more lower paid employees are granted early release, there could be more; if more highly paid senior staff go, it could be fewer.