UNIONS have vowed to fight "tooth and nail" to avoid any compulsory redundancies after borough councillors approved plans to axe more than 500 local authority jobs.

Town hall bosses announced the cuts at a cabinet meeting on Monday night, and warned that managers will be among the first to go.

The proposed cuts are part of a move to fill a budget black hole of around £17m, and the Liberal Democrat leaders claim they will still be able to transform services despite the redundancies.

Independent accountants KPMG have reccomended massively reducing layers of management in a bid to save almost £9m. At present, some council directorates have up to 10 managers when KPMG says a maximum of five would suffice.

A worst-case figure of 850 job losses was announced in September when news of the financial crisis was made public.

Last week, more than 100 cuts were announced following the annual budget review. But following advice from KPMG, who carried out a review of productivity, a final figure of 543 has been agreed.

The council employs almost 5,000 people, and around 487 of the cuts are scheduled for the next financial year with the remainder coming in the following 12-month period.

The proposals will now go out for consultation and a final announcement is expected to be made in February.

Cllr Howard Sykes, Oldham Council leader, said: "This is obviously a difficult time for Oldham Council and particularly so for our staff. However, the council, like every householder, has to live within its means. The money we receive is hard earned by our council tax and tax payers and it is essential that every pound in our pocket is used to deliver the high quality, value-for-money services our residents deserve, rather than on management and bureaucracy."

Cllr Sykes added: "We are only talking about options at this stage and there will be full and meaningful consultation with our staff, the trade unions and our citizens and other stake holders before any final decisions are made. We will have to make some tough decisions but we are determined to see this plan through."

The council has already identified a further £9m to bridge the deficit and says finding savings of more than the £17m needed means it may not be necessary to implement some of the previously proposed cost-cutting measures.

It says that compulsory redundancies will be a last resort. However, representatives of the main trade union representing staff, Unison, have slammed the announcement.

Oldham branch secretary, Ann Mitchell, said: "This is a really bad time for my members. We will fight tooth and nail to avoid any compulsory redundancies.  The timing is awful but this is the traditional period when budget proposals are made."

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