UP TO 340 more jobs could go at a Merseyside council as it tries to make savings amid by government spending cuts.
The redundancies – which Knowsley council warned could be compulsory as well as voluntary – will bring the total of posts slashed since 2010 to 1,185.
Around 20% of the workforce as already been cut in the past two years.
Today trade unions said they were opposed to the cuts and did not believe that a time of austerity should mean redundancies were inevitable.
But officials said it was their duty to ensure every penny that could be spent on services was freed up.
Council leader Cllr Ron Round said: “Our spending plan will protect key front-line services to our community as far as possible and balance the budget in a managed way.
“Unfortunately the sheer size of the cuts coming our way means that we also have to look at further reducing our staffing costs, which make up a sizeable proportion of our budget.
“While we have been able to reduce job numbers significantly over the last few years through mainly voluntary means, we estimate that a further 340 full-time equivalent jobs will need to be lost through voluntary and compulsory means over the next two years in order to achieve the savings.”
Recent research revealed that Knowsley was one of the worst hit local authorities in terms of cuts to budgets.
