EMPLOYEES at Rossendale Council are urging their bosses to set up a working group to stop the exodus of workers wanting to move elsewhere.

A letter from Unison chairman at the council Gerry Foulds has outlined the results of a questionnaire circulated to staff in November to find out why so many were leaving.

In September at the joint consultative committee chief executive Steven Hartley said there were 77 posts vacant or filled by temporary staff.

Staff outlined three main concerns -- morale, management and money.

They said they were concerned about the threat of privatising services, pay and conditions did not compare favourably with other authorities and there was a lack of communication from the council leadership.

Now in a report to the corporate policy committee the union has said: "The workforce is any organisation or company's most valuable asset, yet councillors appear to have very little regard for its employees, and there are too many job vacancies for too long and pay and conditions are lower than current levels in the market place."

Completed questionnaires said councillors felt they could 'ride roughshod' over employees and that they should realise the quality of staff who are leaving could be retained by an improvement in their attitude to pay and conditions.

Other views were that the only time managers were seen was when something went wrong and supervisors constantly talked of the departments closing down.

The report said: "It is obvious that staff are voting with their feet as their judgement on this council's attitude to pay and conditions.

"It is critical that vacancies are filled quickly but this has not been happening. To retain or replace staff we need to compete in the job market place." It concluded: "The message that Rossendale is not a good authority to work for has got to staff of other councils making it more difficult to fill vacancies."