Saturday, July 31, 2010

What the blithering f***

I have no idea what planet our councils inhabit. It certainly isn't Planet Reality, where you and I live. Remember this from April? Shocking stuff.

I finally received the straggler yesterday, Edinburgh City Council, and I must say I nearly fell off my chair when I read the e mail.


FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (SCOTLAND) ACT 2002 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

With reference to your request for information, I have dealt with this in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).

You have requested information regarding Trade Unions. You have specifically requested:

- How many Council employees we have whose sole duties are union based

- Union representatives who have no other tasks but are directly employed by the Council

In response to your request The City of Edinburgh Council currently have eight Trade Union representatives on full-time duties. This level of support is temporary for the duration of the Modernising pay project.



Edunburgh City Council currently have a £90,000,000 hole in their books. How they can possibly justify the cost of paying the wages of eight employees who are basically working for a trade union is beyond me. Perhaps the residents of Edinburgh should be asking a few questions.

As I have said before, the blatant abuse of tax payers money in this way must cease with immediate effect. It's outrageous that in this time of cut backs and fiscal prudence councils get away with nonsense like the above whilst the services you and I pay for, under duress, suffer.

Interested in what the Modernising Pay Project is all about? Have a look here. (PDF file).

12 comments:

Oldrightie said...

Somebody has to fund Labour, Rab.

RantinRab said...

Strange thing is, the council is run by the SNP and LibDumbs.

Shug Niggurath said...

It's a scam the unions could never have gotten away with in private industry, basically shop stewards got away with increased union duties time until all they did was union duties. The NHS is the same, although officially the shop stewards are employed to do a normal job, especially true when the shop steward is in a non medical role (like a porter) they've just given up working in favour of being paid to fuck about.

Mark Wadsworth said...

At least they answered your question.

Problem is, we don't know whether they were telling the truth.

Dioclese said...

It's academic as, like I posted earlier on my 28th July blog, nobody works in the civil service!

Actually - I feel a song coming on so watch this space....

Anonymous said...

Did you bother to ask how many of their employees are in 6 figure salaries? That is the real scandal; overpaid fat cats doing non-jobs

Joe Public said...

Anon 12:31 - "Did you bother to ask how many of their employees are in 6 figure salaries? That is the real scandal; overpaid fat cats doing non-jobs"

Possibly those eight?

Don't Call Me Dave said...

The abuse of taxpayers money is endemic across the whole of the UK, not just in your council Rab. I live in a leafy London suburb and our local paper, which is normally very conservative (small ‘c), has this week called for a revolution to get rid of the troughers. I think they are right. Politicians can laugh off attacks from the blogosphere. A spear up the jacksie is not to easy to ignore!

Nikostratos said...

Rab

still asking "How many trade unionists can dance on the head of a pin?" after all these years

subrosa said...

If that's Edinburgh, just think how many there are in Glasgow. Quite a few more I bet ya.

This went on in Dundee too but I've no idea if it still continues. Wouldn't surprise me if it did.

Nikostratos said...

Yeah! But!

Heard some strange noises from under me bed when i peeked..Yeah! you would never guess but! i found some trade unionist having a meeting to elect a shop steward..
Just goes to show they get everywhere

Weekend Yachtsman said...

I think you'll find most large unionised employers have similar arrangements.

It's part of the devils' pact they have to make with these parasites, to enable the employers to carry on their business without too much stroppy pettiness.