SENIOR Burnley councillors will tomorrow give the green light to a controversial £37 million outsourcing deal affecting 125 town hall jobs.

The borough’s ruling executive will choose which of three major companies to enter into final negotiations with over the change which has concerned union officials.

Unison, the union representing local government staff, last night branded the 10-year contract ‘risky’ warning it will damage Burnley’s economy by transferring jobs out of the borough.

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Liberata, which runs back-office functions for neighbouring Pendle, is the frontrunner to take on the work.

It is competing with Arvato and Mouchel.

The chosen ‘strategic partner, will run several council functions from January.

These include customer services and information technology; revenues, benefits and debt management; payroll and human resources; asset management; and environmental health and licensing.

The proposal comes from the ‘change programme’ Burnley Council has been running since April 2014 with its Labour leader Mark Townsend blaming ‘unprecedented government funding reductions’ for the need to go private.

Cllr Townsend said: “The government’s austerity programme has put us in a very difficult position.

“The way funding is allocated is unfair and hits the most deprived communities like Burnley the most.

“The massive cuts in the amount of money government gives us mean that we have to review everything that we do and make some very tough decisions.”

Council employees working in the affected services will transfer to the private company, with their conditions protected.

Peter Thorne, Unison Burnley branch secretary said: “Staff are nervous and would very much prefer to continue serving the public as employees of Burnley Council.

“We believe that no private company holds the solution.

“What Burnley desperately needs is proper funding for local government, not a risky privatisation scheme.

“We fear that poses the prospect of redundancies and cuts to staff terms and conditions.

“There will be no guarantee jobs will remain in the town and services will suffer.

“Other councils, including Blackburn with Darwen, are moving away from large-scale privatisation schemes as they have been shown to be inflexible to service needs and poor value .”