SENIOR officials at a council are to receive significant salary boosts as hundreds of workers face pay cuts and front-line services come under threat.

East Dunbartonshire Council, which is having to make savings of £23 million over the next three years, is understood to have voted to increase the salaries of three senior officers.

Although the decision was taken behind closed doors and the authority refused to confirm the scale of the salary hikes, insiders said the rises were in the region of £15,000 per year. The authority, which is run by a Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, described the timing as "difficult" but said senior officers had not had a pay rise since 2008. Before the rise, the chief officers were paid between £78,000 and £102,000 per year.

Union officials reacted with anger to the move, saying that many normal workers were facing pay cuts after being told to re-apply for lower paid jobs or face redundancy, while many services were being outsourced.

John Duffy, trade union convenor for Unite, said the council workers he represented were furious after hearing of the pay rises, which he believes will be backdated to 2012.

In one cash-saving measure, the council is understood to be cutting the number of janitorial site supervisor roles, which pay around £25,000, from 56 to 12. Staff are invited to apply for one of the 12 posts, and if they are unsuccessful, will be offered new roles which attract salaries of around 40 per cent less than they currently earn.

"A lot of workers are being asked to take significant drops in their terms and conditions," Mr Duffy said. "They're disgusted about the way this has happened. Our members are waiting for job evaluations, but the process has been accelerated for chief officers. It should have been done at the same time as other employees."

Mr Duffy also accused the authority of failing to engage with the union over its cost-saving programme and taking vital decisions in secret.

In a report published last week, Audit Scotland expressed concern over a high number of decisions taken by the council in private, meaning documents were not available to the public. Auditors also said the council's programme to transform services needed "greater strategic focus."

Mr Duffy said that the council had refused its offer to enlist the conciliation service Acas to prevent a potential industrial dispute, which he warned is now a strong possibility.

Rhondda Geekie, leader of the council, said the number of chief officers at the council had reduced by 56 per cent over the last five years, saving £750,000 in the period, meaning the duties of those that remained had increased.

"This council has agreed to implement the pay recommendations of the independent national adviser, which were developed following an extensive review process," she said. "The recommended pay levels for our chief officers have been benchmarked across other local authorities and it is essential that we pay them in line with their peers across Scotland. We do understand the timing is difficult but there is a need to finalise this process and take forward the challenging programme of work."

The authority's director of customer services and transformation, Ann Davie, said changes to services were designed to ensure the council became more "effective and efficient" while meeting cost-saving targets.

She said: "Following the council decision to implement a new way of working across Neighbourhood Services, due process must now be followed to advise employees when their current contracts will end."