Edinburgh street cleaners sacked by 'drawing lots'
Three street cleaners have been temporarily reinstated after complaints they were sacked after their names were randomly picked out of a cereal bowl.
Edinburgh Council decided to axe seven out of the 13 agency workers but could not decide who would lose their jobs.
They managed to choose four staff for redundancy through a performance-related decision but then became stuck on the final three.
An Edinburgh Council shift manager then decided to draw lots from a bowl.
Edinburgh City Council was using temporary workers employed by the agency, Blue Arrow.
An Edinburgh City Council spokeswoman said: "We needed to downsize in order to make budget savings.
"We made a decision on who to let go from our temporary workforce on the grounds of performance in four individual cases.
"The manager, in consultation and agreement with the staff, decided that the best way to agree on the remaining three positions was by random selection.
"We felt that this was a fair and transparent way to decide, although it would appear that not all staff now agree, so we have decided to revisit this."
However, the contractor, will still have to find seven people to lay off using a different method.