The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) has placed 17 staff members at risk of redundancy in a bid to close a budget deficit of half a million pounds.
SCVO’s publication Third Force News (TFN) yesterday published an article confirming the plans, to which the umbrella body’s board have agreed as part of a restructure.
A voluntary redundancy process had already been opened up in February in an initial attempt for the organisation to close its budget deficit.
SCVO had said at the time that it was hoping to reduce its staffing costs by 8% over the next two years to tackle the deficit.
However, staff have now been told that the voluntary process had failed to deliver sufficient savings, leading to SCVO’s leadership deciding to propose a restructure.
This restructure will reportedly result in a total of 17 permanent employees now facing redundancy, while four staff on fixed contracts will not have their contracts renewed or extended in their current roles.
According to SCVO’s most recently filed accounts for the year ending 31 March 2024, it employed 84 staff members.
Although the formal redundancy process is not yet underway, it is understood that those affected have already been spoken to informally.
New roles created concurrently to redundancies
In addition to the redundancies, SCVO has also created five roles, with a sixth yet to be created, as a result of the restructure.
The organisation’s management told TFN that the new roles were an attempt to “improve our offer and generate income”.
SCVO staff at risk of redundancy will reportedly be able to apply for the five roles currently being advertised.
They have additionally been informed that once the redundancy process ends, there will be no more compulsory redundancies before 2027.
A spokesperson for SCVO said: “We can confirm that a redundancy process is underway. We will be consulting in line with our organisational policies and all staff will be supported in this.”
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