Local Government Chronicle article upsets council staff
An article by Steve Fitzgerald Interim Director of finance at Hounslow, has managed to get up the noses of civic centre staff to whom the information contained within it came as something of a shock. Mr. Fitzgerald talks of a "large number of tiers of management". "What we are looking to do is to reduce it from 9 or 10 layers to as few as four or five". Those numbers are just fanciful. The article goes on 'But the main way that the council is seeking to deliver efficiencies is to remove 4,000 staff from the payroll'. Says Mr. Fitzgerald "There are people who don't want to be part of what's happening. We are giving people the opportunity to leave on fairly generous terms rather than becoming bogged down in Industrial Tribunals".People would dispute I am sure 9 or 10 layers of management which is just a product of his obviously very fertile imagination, or else he is just lying, and if 4,000 staff were to be "removed" from the payroll, there would be NO staff at all, the man is clearly delusional. You could be forgiven for thinking that the staff had been consulted at length about this "efficiency drive", they weren't they were told, and if the terms that are being offered are so "fairly generous" and of course legally O.K. why would you get "bogged down in Industrial Tribunals"? The article further says that 'the main fruit of the efficiency drive so far has been to freeze council tax rates for two years', no, the aim was to freeze the council tax at all and any costs. Supposedly the Leadership O.K.d this drivel? Either way - this article which is full of wild assertions, not to say downright untruths, has done little to assuage the worries of the staff and promote any goodwill towards members, it is insulting, inaccurate and unacceptable. We can only hope someone has a word in Mr. Fitzgerald's shell like, and I know just the one.
Vanessa Smith ● 6345d45 Comments