Dendermonde (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Dendermonde faces a budget crisis with pension costs rising from €3M to € 25 M. Mayor Leen Dierick plans to outsource services (166 workers affected) to cut costs and maintain quality.
As VRT News reported, Dendermonde, like many other cities, is dealing with big money problems and needs to fix its budget quickly. In the past 6 years, the city paid about 3 million euros for pensions, but now it might have to pay as much as 25 million euros.
This big increase is putting a lot of pressure on the city’s finances. Officials mentioned that Dendermonde has to follow new rules from the government, and many of these rules could lead to more money being spent.
“They can all go to the external operators. We are going to negotiate in such a way that the staff can continue to work on the same wage agreements in the long term,”
says Mayor Leen Dierick (CD&V).
How will Dendermonde’s outsourcing plan affect its budget and staff?
To solve its money problems, Dendermonde plans to have other companies do some of its work. This includes things like the main kitchen, helping people clean their homes, daycare at De Kleine Kroon, and cleaning city buildings. Right now, 166 people work for the city in these jobs.
The city hopes that having outside companies do these jobs will save money and make things run better. Even though outsourcing means changes for city workers, the city leaders think it’s needed to balance the budget and keep important services going.
Officials mentioned that this is a common problem for cities, as they try to deal with rising costs and new rules from the government while still helping their residents. Dendermonde is currently focused on making all of its services more efficient. At the same time, they are committed to taking care of their employees.
City leaders are trying to save money while also making sure that the workplace is a positive environment. They see this as being like good “family men” who care about how their employees feel. The city wants to keep employees motivated and supported, even as they look for ways to cut costs.
They mentioned that this involves carefully checking how public money is used and reviewing current rules to find places where they can save money without affecting the quality of services or the well-being of the staff.
Dendermonde is also searching for new grants and outside money to help with its financial problems. However, the city hasn’t figured out exactly how much money it needs to save or fully looked at how these cost-cutting plans will affect things. The total amount of savings needed is still unknown. City officials are still going over their budget and how things work to make a clear plan.
Officials mentioned that over the last few years, Dendermonde has been hit hard by things like the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis, which caused unexpected and high costs. On top of that, the money spent on pensions is going way up.
