Politician concerned council spent £6m on agency staff in 2 years

Politician concerned council spent £6m on agency staff in 2 years

19 September 2018

A SENIOR politician has questioned a £6m spend by Newry, Mourne and Down Council on employing almost 270 agency staff over a two-year period.

The figure was published recently following detailed research carried out by the NIPSA trade union, with details of the local authority’s spend outlined in its ‘Agency Boom in the Age of Austerity’ document.

South Down MLA Colin McGrath said he was eager to study the detail of the document in relation to the scale and cost of long-term placement of agency staff across public services.

He said the report spelt out that the local council spent almost £6m on 268 agency staff over a two year period.

“This report raises further questions for the local council about its apparent high level of dependency on agency staff,” he remarked. “I would be asking the council a number of questions after reviewing this report. 

“These include is this really the most efficient use of public money and when you consider the amount of money that has been spent of agency costs, would the council not have employed staff on a longer term basis?”

Mr McGrath said that as a social democrat, he believed that if organisations were so dependent on employing people as agency staff, why did they perpetuate a culture of employing people simply to meet a short term need. 

He continued: “If we counter this by employing a model built on job security and making a long term investment in staff, we not only will be able to save money but, more importantly, staff members will be empowered and encouraged in their task at hand.

“I am incredibly grateful to NIPSA for this important piece of research and would now encourage Newry, Mourne and Down Council to consider the questions that this has raised in relation to its employment procedures and use of public funds.”

In response, a council spokeswoman said NIPSA wrote to all local authority chief executives in March last year, seeking information on agency workers. 

She said Newry, Mourne and Down Council subsequently responded that between April 2015 and March 2017, the organisation engaged 268 staff, explaining this figure had since significantly reduced.

The spokeswoman said the statistics for the council reflected a number of additional workers which were hired to augment the organisation’s workforce from Easter until the end of the summer period. 

“This additional resource is no longer required after the seasonal period,” she added. “It would be important to note that this year’s seasonal requirements accounted for approximately half of the agency workers engaged which is indeed providing work for people simply to meet a short term need and therefore not denying longer term employment.”