LABOUR councillors on strife-torn West Dunbartonshire Council, who launched a management review aimed at slashing #300,000 from the budget, could find the move backfiring.
The team which is conducting the inquiry has found that Inverclyde Council, which was chosen as a comparable authority, has significantly more senior staff.
Latest figures show West Dunbartonshire has 11 chief officers earning more than #44,000 a year, while Inverclyde has a total of 18 in this category. The investigating team, however, also established that West Dunbartonshire, with a 3500-strong payroll, has 600 more lower paid workers.
The development is the latest twist in a bitter, long-running row in which a range of senior officials and Labour councillors have become embroiled.
It began after chief executive Michael Watters alleged council leader Andy White and Labour group secretary Jim McCallum bullied and plotted to dismiss him from his #79,000-a-year post and tried to ''dig dirt'' on depute Ian Leitch.
Mr Colin Mair, who heads the inquiry team from the centre for Scottish Local Authority Management (Slam) will be meeting the leaders of West Dunbartonshire's Labour and SNP groups this week to discuss the implications.
Worried trade union officials have attended hurriedly-arranged meetings to prepare contingency plans in the light of the development.
Ms Denise McArdle, secretary of the local branch of Unison, conceded yesterday that the review had always posed a threat to the labour force, especially when coupled to the administration's refusal to enlighten unions on which levels it intended to examine.
She feared the authority could decide on compulsory redundancies. Ms McArdle pledged Unison would protect its members. ''We said that if there was going to be a situation of compulsory redundancy we would instigate industrial action. We will instigate industrial action procedures if that is what is necessary.''
Unison has consistently defended Mr Watters, claiming the review was a back-door method to get rid of him and other senior officers.
The SNP group in West Dunbartonshire said its contention that the real reasons for the management review was not savings but a vendetta against certain officers was confirmed.
Group leader Bill Mackechnie said: ''The choice of Inverclyde as a comparator authority has shown that West Dunbartonshire has a lean structure at the top but comes out with vastly more staff at lower levels. A clear scrutiny is required to establish the reasons for this.
''The SNP group is committed to a cost-effective management structure which will deliver first-class services and will be putting forward proposals to Slam to achieve that.''
Council leader Andy White said: ''If coming out of the review we find that we have a structure which is different from other councils but is going to have an efficient and effective council, while safeguarding the council taxpayers' resources, we will be very happy with that.''
Referring to the 600 additional staff, Mr White said it had to be remembered that West Dunbartonshire was a deprived area.
''We do have worse poverty levels in West Dunbartonshire than there are in Inverclyde and certainly more resources are required to tackle that problem. The financial situation is more serious than in Inverclyde and again, perhaps, that has an effect on the staffing.
''We have to make sure that we are comparing like with like. There are many dangers of comparison but we feel it would be a useful exercise to compare our structure with other councils and Mr Mair is suggesting that the one that has the best comparison is Inverclyde.''
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