Council taking on more staff Plan to curb overtime bill

South Lanarkshire Council are expected to take steps to reduce their overtime bill – by employing nearly 30 more staff.

Councillors on an executive committee yesterday (Wednesday) rubber-stamped arrangements that would cut the amount they pay in premium overtime by £500,000 each year.

A report told members that the local authority paid nearly £10.3million in overtime pay in the year 2014/15.

The vast bulk of that was in social work and community resources, which accounted for just under £8m of the figure.

A further £1.9m was paid out to workers in housing and technical resources, with more modest amounts in education and finance.

As part of the savings package for 2016/17, the council conducted a review of premium overtime pay in partnership with trade unions, to “identify reasons for overtime and ways in which overtime could be reduced”.

The council will now look to employ part-time and seasonal staff to save money across community, social work and housing resources.

Among the new roles will be six part-time janitor posts and 12 part-time, seasonal maintenance posts on the council’s golf courses.

Vacancies in social work will be filled and further reviews will be used to streamline processes.

All three resources will continue to work to reduce overtime by bringing in a pilot of flexible working arrangements, training current staff to reduce the need for overtime or sub-contract work and reviewing work practices.

They will also be told to look at alternative ways of delivering services during normal working hours.