A public sector union has accused Harrow Council of ‘running down the clock’ regarding redundancies in an attempt to short-change departing workers.

Members of the Harrow branch of Unison met council leader Councillor Susan Hall on Monday to discuss its accusation that the authority – the borough’s largest employer – was stalling on signing off voluntary redundancy packages to take advantage of less generous terms due to come into effect in April.

The changes had been agreed with Unison and GMB in November 2012, but in December last year, Unison branch secretary Gary Martin lodged an unsuccessful request with the council to suspend and renegotiate them.

A Unison report to last week’s council employees’ consultative forum included the statement: “We firmly believe the employer has knowingly protracted the restructure processes in what appears to be an attempt to gain financial advantage over employees who now find themselves at risk of redundancy.”

The redundancies arose out of PRISM (Public Realm Integrated Services Model), a technology-led transformation of the public realm department due to be implemented in July last year, costing £2.8million and affecting more than 350 workers.

Concerns led the then chief executive Michael Lockwood to put the project on hold last summer. It was later relaunched as Towards Excellence, with the aim of creating multi-tasking teams, centralising community engagement and improving customer service.

Comments in the Unison report about this read: “It would seem that the employer is intent on recovering the additional costs of this ‘unnatural pause’ incurred at the expense of the majority of employees, now at risk through reduced redundancy payments on their final day of service.

“Staff now find themselves in the perverse situation through which the employer’s attempt to ‘run down the clock’ has resulted in less favourable terms and less favourable treatment than those who were not served ‘at risk’ notices but were afforded the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy at an enhanced rate.”

A council spokesman said: “In order to ensure the council can deliver its priorities we need to make significant changes to how services are delivered. Staff will be treated fairly through the process and all legal and contractual requirements will be met.

“As is proper, the trade unions played a key role in representing their members in reaching the Modernising Terms and Conditions collective agreement and the council will continue to work with the unions in implementing the agreement and the changes we need to make.

“In any restructure, there could be changes in roles and, as a consequences, grades and pay rates. Any such changes are subject to consultation and job evaluation.”