Dozens of staff at Sefton Council have been suspended from work in the past two years over disciplinary matters and 10 have been sacked, a freedom of information request has revealed.
Since the start of 2019, a total of 24 members of staff have been suspended in line with the council’s disciplinary process.
Eight of those subsequently returned to work while 10 were dismissed from the council’s service.
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Responding to a freedom of information request from the ECHO, Sefton Council refused to disclose how many of the remaining six were still suspended and how many had resigned, claiming the numbers were so small that the information could help identify individuals and thus breach the Data Protection Act.
However, at a meeting of the council’s Audit and Governance Committee in June this year, officers suggested only one member of staff was still suspended from duties.
The questions about suspended staff followed claims earlier this year that six senior officers had been suspended on full pay, which Conservative councillor Sir Ron Watson suggested cost the council around £1m.
The council said it did not “recognise” the figure suggested by Cllr Watson. A previous freedom of information request revealed that between April 2016 and July 2018, 32 members of council staff were suspended at a cost of just £177,676.
The reasons for the staff suspensions and dismissals since January 2019 have not been made public.
A council spokesperson said: “Sefton Council has clear procedures and guidelines for conduct in the workplace, which apply to all the authority’s centrally-employed 4,500-plus staff. Staff are made aware when they join the authority.
“Part of this process are disciplinary measures which for some cases include suspension and dismissal, after the full procedures have been followed.
“As with most organisations, there are some employees who choose not to abide by the policies in place and we are satisfied that over the past two and a half years, our robust procedure has identified and dealt with that small number which represents around half of one percent of our overall workforce.”
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