MORE than £100,000 of taxpayers' money was handed to disgruntled council workers who lost their jobs under the controversial Babcock deal, it has emerged.

The Worcester News can exclusively reveal how Worcestershire County Council paid out £104,000 in compensation to the staff made redundant following the furore in order to avoid a tribunal.

It means taxpayers forked out an average of £1,300 for each of the 80 workers who were let go last Christmas, which came just weeks after 391 school support staff had their jobs transferred to the firm.

We can also reveal how the payouts came after Unison threatened to take the council to a potentially embarrassing employment tribunal on behalf of the furious workers.

In October last year, bosses at County Hall launched the five-year deal with Babcock, only for the firm to tell its new staff up to 103 roles faced the axe.

As we reported last year the news stunned the staff, with unions claiming to have been misled and "kept in the dark" about the looming job cuts beforehand.

In May this year bosses at County Hall confirmed 65.8 full-time equivalent jobs had gone, but we understand it worked out at around 80 people because many are on part-time hours.

Last month the council refused to tell this newspaper how much had been paid out in compensation, calling it 'confidential', but the figure has been revealed by sources close to the fall-out.

The opposition Labour group has accused the authority of trying to "hide the cost from the public".

Labour group leader Councillor Peter McDonald said: "The true cost of the council's incompetence in its rush to privatise services can now be seen by all.

"The cost so far is £104,000 to settle the dispute with Babcock over long-serving employees who had just been transferred being made redundant - so much for making any savings on the privatisation of services.

"A cost the council has been trying to hide from the public, not just to save embarrassment but trying to cover up their financial incompetence.

"This is substantial amount of money to suddenly pay out, and can only be described as a serious loss to the council and will no doubt rebound on other services."

Jim Price, from Worcestershire's Unison branch, said: "What our members have been able to get is a small level of compensation for what they went through.

"We just hope the council learns the lessons from this and that it doesn't happen again."

The funding handed to Babcock from the council was £3.8 million for the first year but is being reduced 44 per cent to just £2.1 million in 2017.

The school support roles include all kinds of help like admissions, post-16 education, teacher training, educational psychology, property advice and help for looked-after and special needs pupils.

The deal was done on the understanding that Babcock would reduce council staff numbers, given its huge scale, and continue to provide a service to schools by relying on other in-house workers to plug some of the gap.

A council spokesman said: "Our number one priority has always been to improve outcomes for Worcestershire's children.

"To avoid any further stress associated with a tribunal hearing and to minimise the disruption it would have caused, we were pleased to have reached an agreement with Unison - we will look at what lessons can be learnt.

"Agreement was reached between Unison and the council, as opposed to Babcock Prime, as the claim was made against the council."