National Trust accused of ‘shambolic’ consultation over redundancy rollout
National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has been accused of running a “shambolic” consultation into mass redundancies at the charity as 400 people face losing their jobs.
Trade union Prospect said NTS, which has lost £30 million due to coronavirus, was pushing ahead with the job cuts when it was not yet clear whether the Scottish Government would give it a financial lifeline. A NTS report containing the full extent of the financial crisis and a funding request was lodged by the trust two weeks ago.
No decision has yet been made by Scottish Government on any funding, which is likely to be dependent on some jobs being retained.
Richard Hardy, Prospect’s national secretary for Scotland and ireland, said a request to further extend the consultation with staff, which ends today, to take into account the Scottish Government position was declined by NTS.
Mr Hardy said: If we are to have a proper consultation, we need to know the full scope of the situation. In 30 years of doing this job, I have seen some pretty shambolic consultation processes and this is close to the worst. It feels very much that NTS are simply going through the motions with the consultation.”
Phil Long, the new chief executive of National Trust for Scotland, said he understood the union’s concerns and hoped that “vital aid” would be made available by government.
He added: “But simply put, this is the worst crisis the Trust has ever faced and difficult decisions are inevitable and must be taken as soon as we can if we are to stave off an even worse crisis.
“For that reason our consultation was carried out on the basis that no external funding may be forthcoming and what then would be necessary to save the Trust – if external funding is forthcoming, it would certainly allow us to see the prospect of a faster recovery, but we cannot count on that.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said it was considering the business case put forward by NTS with a meeting with the charity due “shortly” to discuss it.