Some 79 posts are at risk of redundancy
Conservation charity the National Trust for Scotland is moving to a new management structure in its regions which will result in job loses.
Up to 79 posts will be put at risk of redundancy under the changes while 63 new roles will be created as part of the new structure.
Those affected will be encouraged to apply for the new roles.
It will mean that leadership and administration will be handed to operational managers and business support teams, with staff based at properties concentrating on delivering visitor experiences.
The changes are part of continuing plans by the trust to improve its visitor services and free up funding for conservation projects.
This is the latest stage of charity’s restructuring which began with its Edinburgh-based headquarters in 2016. The trust has seen record membership in the last two years, at 380,000 members, and a third successive year of visitor growth to over three million visitors.
Patrick Duffy, chief executive of the trust, said: “Each of the general managers is deciding on the best ways to invest the new resources being allocated and to determine how to improve the visitor experience and heritage stories.
“This has been a welcome opportunity to re-inforce that the trust includes many fantastic historic properties to enjoy, right across the country, and with public support for essential conservation work most visible through our visitors.
“The changes mean reducing the level of administrative activities undertaken at properties thereby focussing the teams at them much more on visitor services, quality and delivering conservation work more effectively.
“If we are to offer visitor experiences that meet today’s and tomorrow’s expectations, we need to have the right combination of skills in the teams running properties. In short we have to make changes.
“We are proposing to create circa 63 new and adapted roles in the regions across Scotland. However, this does mean that we will have phase out around 79 of the old roles.
“This does put some staff at risk of redundancy but we hope that as many as possible of those affected can apply for the new roles”
The proposals have been shared with the trust’s union, Prospect.
The proposals are now subject to 30 days of consultation between staff, union representatives and stakeholders throughout the affected properties.
It is expected that the finalised proposals will be implemented through February and March, with some changes held back and considered at the end of the main visitor season (September-October 2018).
