STAFF at Southampton council have been told redundancy payments will be slashed as the cash strapped authority seeks to make more savings.

Council chiefs want to cut the generous packages they have been offering staff in recent years which have pushed the redundancy bill to around £6m a year, including early pension contributions for over 55s.

It plans to remove discretionary multipliers, which boost compulsory redundancy payments by 60 per cent and double voluntary redundancy payments, and instead use just the minimum statutory multiplier for age and length of service.

Under the new calculations, only weekly pay of up to £1,000 would be taken into account, and a £30,000 cap would be brought in.

The announcement comes as union members are in the seventh month of industrial action in a bitter dispute over pay cuts of up to 5.5 per cent imposed in July and 143 staff face redundancy under budget plans for next year.

Unison branch secretary Mike Tucker said: “It's a further worsening of conditions.”

Tory council leader Royston Smith said: “We value our staff immensely and have always offered a redundancy package that compares favourably in both the public and private sector.

“That will continue to be the case. However we do need to bring our redundancy package in line with others, while making sure we bring an end to the bigger payouts that residents often see in the public sector.

“We will be one of the few local authorities to cap redundancy payments in the future.”