A LEAKED confidential document shows Wirral Council’s entire 4,800 workforce could face being dismissed and reinstated on new contracts.

In a weird echo of Derek Hatton’s Liverpool City Council crisis of the 1980s - in which all 30,000 employees were issued with redundancy notices - the document shows Wirral might now consider taking a similar route.

And ironically, the leading union figure who fought against Mr Hatton’s plans on behalf of the Liverpool workforce at the time – Graham Burgess – is now the chief executive at Wirral Council.

The leaked paper, headed “Draft Overall Timetable” contains 77 entries and lists actions and meetings scheduled to take place between October 2012 and March of next year.

The entry for Monday, February 4, states: “If required: Formal notices of dismissal and re-engagement (all staff).

The timetable has emerged less than a week after the council announced it will be seeking to make up to 500 staff redundant as part of a package of measures to reduce costs by £39m next year.

The workforce will be asked to accept changes to their terms and conditions including reduced hours and – crucially – reduced redundancy payments. Around 3,000 letters have been sent out advising them their jobs are “at risk”.

Last Friday, Mr Burgess warned that unless these changes are accepted by the trade unions, it would be impossible to lower costs to a sufficient level, and this would mean up to 900 workers would have to go.

Mr Burgess also admitted compulsory severance, although still seen as a last resort, “would be hard to avoid.”

However, in 1984, Mr Burgess was a leading figure in Nalgo (now part of Unison) at Liverpool.

As the city teetered toward bankruptcy, a coalition - including  the unions - demanded extra cash from Government to help fund the council.

When the Government refused to budge, Militant's solution to creating a legal budget – issuing 90-day redundancy notices to all 30,000 staff – meant the political leadership became locked on collision course with unions.

In an interview in the Daily Post published in 2007, Mr Burgess is quoted as saying: “They (Militant) would say to us, ‘It’s just a piece of paper, of course we’ll re-employ everybody’ but from a union point of view, we couldn’t accept that because there was no guarantee.

“Quite how it was going to end, we didn’t know, but hindsight means that I know the Government was very close to taking over the council itself to sort things out.”

Derek Hatton’s autobiography names Mr Burgess as being one of the principal figures he holds responsible for the collapse of his Militant administration.

The chief executive has already embarked on talks with union leaders in Wirral seeking agreement for the contract changes.

The leaked document shows the move to dismiss all staff could come after a ballot in January, when the workforce will be asked to vote for or against the changes.

And whatever the outcome, it’s unlikely to be the end of the problems facing Wirral – the council is seeking to reduce its budget by a staggering £103m over the next three years largely as a result of Government-imposed “austerity measures.”

Mr Burgess told the Globe: "There is absolutely no presumption that we will dismiss and re-engage the staff. In any event, this would be a matter for elected members to decide at the time after all negotiations are completed

"But I must prepare for all the eventualities; we are hoping for agreement over terms and conditions but the measure is in the document as a precaution. If it were not, and councillors decided that was what they wanted to do, they would not be able to.

"It's similar to emergency planning. You draw up plans for things you hope won't ever happen, but you must always consider what to do if they did." 

Regarding the Derek Hatton link, Mr Burgess said: "I understand the position but the circumstances here are completely different.

"The issue then was pay and employment, whereas in Wirral the issue is terms and conditions.

"We would be giving our staff guarantees that they would be taken back on, which is very different from Hatton."

Unison Northwest regional convenor Diane Kelly said: "We're expecting the worst, our members will not tolerate it.

"The fact is 2,919 staff have had letters sent to their homes telling them their jobs are at risk. This will have a massive effect on people and their families.

"Mr Burgess has had a team of consultants in, picking the bones out of this authority. It is not on."

She said there will be a general meeting of members next week to decide on a course of action.

The union has already passed a resolution to consult with the council - but at the same time to  make a request to the regional secretary seeking a formal ballot for industrial action if the propasals remain in their current format.