Employment Archives - Page 9 of 9

Old Susannah No. 46 – Thinking Outside The Box

Aberdeen City, Articles, Community, Creative Writing, Information, Opinion, Satire and Humour No Responses »

Aug 042011

Old Susannah looks back at the week that was and wonders who’s up to what and why. By Suzanne Kelly.

Tartan Day.

A few impressive pipe bands, some knights in armour, and the Lord and Lady Provost paying tribute to the legacy of William Wallace. Wallace famously fought for independence for his people against the rich and powerful tyrants of the day, who thought they were above the law.

You might say Wallace took ‘direct action’ to extremes. How pleased he would have been to think our Provost and Council uphold the principles for which he was hung, drawn and quartered.

His statue of course overlooks the remains of the historic Denburn Valley, known to you and me as Union Terrace Gardens: also known to Wood and Milne as a cashcow. How exactly the Wallace monument will look adjacent to any of the mysterious, unexplained, undisclosed £140 million pound proposals will be anyone’s guess.

No doubt we will wind up with something that sensitively ‘connects’ the Victorian park to the impressive granite architecture. In short expect glass, concrete, parking spaces and a monorail platform. I suppose we could always take Wallace down and sell him for scrap metal to help with the UTG fundraising. He’d have wanted it that way I am certain.

A few interesting titbits have been coming in from here and there. Ms Valerie Watts showed up to speak to a Community Council Forum earlier this week, but she was unamused to be asked about the Tullos Hill roe deer cull.

Ms Watts also owes me a reply to a formal complaint on the whole Tullos issue; I’ve chased it up (again) today.

In fact the City is launching a PR offensive, and has offered to have officers present the tree proposal to community councils. You might want to contact your council for details – the question and answer sessions (if any) alone should be worth showing up for. We are told the community councils ‘only know what’s been in the media’, and don’t know the whole facts.

Media’s fault of course. Nothing to do with the council not giving the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth from the start of this great plan. Of course if people wanted to write to Ms Watts to either support or reject the cull (or ask how the £43,800 ‘repayment’ was accidentally forgotten when I asked about it), all they have to do is drop an email to her at chiefexecutive@aberdeencity.gov.uk.

Feel free to ask any questions you want; but as a health and safety precaution, do not hold your breath until the answer arrives. At this rate we won’t get on with any definitions, so without any further ado, I will get stuck in.

Association of Community Councils

(noun) a collective body promoting the importance of community councils. A not-for-profit body with the following aims (well at least until it is culled next year):

“To encourage exchanges of information between Community Councils.
“To promote examples of best practice in the work of Community Councils
“To offer impartial and unbiased advice, training and information to Community Councils
“To facilitate communication between national bodies and Community Councils
“To preserve the independence of each Community Council
“To ascertain, collect, and express nationally, the views of Community Councils.
From: http://www.ascc.org.uk/about

Unfortunately, it’s very, very expensive to run this Association. It costs a massive £70,000 per year to run*, so obviously this forum for sharing ideas and experiences to strengthen community councils must be culled.

Aberdeen has its own unique way of dealing with community councils – it ignores them. When it comes to consultations about deer, travellers, Union Terrace Gardens, closing schools or cutting services, our City Councillors generously take decisions without unduly burdening the elected community councillors.

Nigg Community Council was told, not asked, about the takeover of its park by Cove Bay Rangers football club (fan club president: Ms Kate Dean). They were told, not asked over the deer cull and the Loirston Loch stadium. Just this week Nigg CC for some reason objected to a housing officer’s plans to throw Calder Park open to travellers for a few months.

What’s wrong with not being asked about this great plan in advance, I wonder?

This is all part of the City’s ‘consultation’ and ‘transparency’ drive. Once the Association of Community Councils is gone, the Community Councils will be on their own. In fact I’m surprised we haven’t had city councillors trying to kill off the community councils yet. Some of these councils get nearly £3,000 a year or so to help people in their communities.

Perhaps it would be better to leave important matters to our tried and tested, honest, reliable, transparent, vibrant central government officials and councillors (well, the ones who keep out of jail and don’t get arrested for kerb crawling anyway. Great minds like HoMalone, The Fletch and The Dean and so on). I know I can barely get through a day on my own without their guidance.

The Association stood up for the community councils, shared best practice, shared experiences, and helped people (me directly for one) – no wonder it had to go.

*Note: £70K doesn’t’ get you much these days. Aberdeen’s ‘Change Manager’ earns £80,000 per year. Scottish Enterprise costs some £750 million per year. And ACSEF’s annual running costs? No one knows for certain.

Streamline

(verb) to abbreviate, shorten, abridge an object or procedure.

Central Government has recently announced it wants to ‘stop’ people creating future impediments to great projects like the AWPR. The Loirston Loch stadium, being plunked in the heart of greenbelt land, never even got called in.

Time for more projects like the stadium to be ‘streamlined.’

You will have seen the dreadful news this week. There was nothing sensationalist or alarmist in the Evening Express headline which told us in effect ‘Not building the AWPR costs £1 million per month’! Absolutely shocking! To think that people who don’t want this road built actually are standing up and using their legal rights to challenge it! They even have the nerve to challenge the public/private funding mechanism the government wants to use to pay for the dream highway.

Obviously I believe it costs at least £1 million a month not to build the road – but you might want to have a look at what the Road Sense people think actually building the road will cost:- http://www.road-sense.org/AWPR-MortgagingYourFuture.html .

I wouldn’t worry too much about their figures. The road isn’t going to cost you a great deal of money. However your children and their children’s cost for the road is another story, but like Scarlett O’Hara – with PPI financing, you can ‘worry about it tomorrow.’ Financially, it is as sensible as the funding plans for the ‘transformation’ of Union Terrace Gardens.

‘Streamlining’ planning applications can only be a good thing.

If anyone out there can figure out how much the AWPR has already cost in consultants and consultations, I’d really like to hear from you. Let’s be fair – there was a consultation. A great big costly travelling consultation, with bells and whistles.

Of course the routes suggested in the very expensive consultation have nothing to do whatsoever with the road plans as they stand now, but let’s not split hairs. Money is very tight right now. We’ve got to cut corners (if we’re going to have the dosh to keep a couple of wars and our banks going).. The suggestion of ‘streamlining’ the justice system to get rid of pesky jury trials was a great idea – we may still get that one.

‘Streamlining’ planning applications can only be a good thing.

It is very reassuring to know that Alex Salmond is putting his mind to this worthy end. We really should have made it easier for that nice Mr Trump from America to build the world’s greatest environmental disaster – sorry – golf course at Menie… Look how much good it’s doing for everyone! Jobs creations! Tourists! Holiday Homes! Stabilised Sand dunes (my personal favourite). So if we don’t immediately agree to start building the £191 million pound road (old estimate), then we are losing £1 million per month – if not per day!

This can’t go on. I wouldn’t dare to question this statistic, as it was in print and must be accurate. (By the way, assuming the costs haven’t risen from the £191 million, the new AWPR can be yours in only 16 years at £1 million per month – or twice that with PPI financing).

Let’s just start saying ‘yes’ to everything. We have a government that wants to build as much stuff as it can, and it doesn’t want the likes of us to have to worry about the details. I think they’re just trying to be helpful. To someone.

Direct Action

(mod English noun) form of protest where the protestors stage some kind of highly visible challenge to opponents, to call attention (especially media attention) to an issue or problem .

This form of protest is increasingly popular with environmental and economic activists. And it freaks the government out completely – which is totally wrong of course.

In a long-forgotten age, if your elected officials acted improperly or against the common good, you could write a letter and expect some form of answer. If you didn’t get the answer you wanted, you could stage a protest march, get petitions signed, and so on.

It’s not as if our Government is scared of protestors.

If you still had no success with your cause in the good old days, you could take to the forests and rob the rich and give to the poor, or board a ship filled with tea from England and throw its contents into Boston Harbour. Or have a revolution.

But no one ever remembers such events these days, and writing letters and starting petitions is much, well –safer. Still, it’s a bit easier to ignore a petition than the Boston Tea Party. Robin Hood is remembered as a hero, and King John the villain. Who I wonder are our future heroes and villains? Whose statues will be revered at the future Union Terrace car park and shopping mall?

It’s not as if our Government is scared of protestors. If they were, they would have (for instance) put an undercover cop like Mr Mark Kennedy in place to spy on environmental protestors for seven years. It does look like the poor policeman went ‘native’ in the end, and the courts did not think much of the police tactics used.

Such unwarranted police paranoia would never override principles of a democratic, free society. But as the Met are not prepared to discuss this matter (even though it’s been all over the newspapers), we have to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Old Susannah will introduce ‘Just Do It’ next week at the Belmont; there will be discussion afterwards as well.

‘Just Do It’ follows a group of environmental protestors as they meet their assorted targets and enemies head on. If you’re free on Friday 12 Aug at 6.30, please do come along. I have had a preview of the film, and can promise it will raise a few interesting issues. (Rumours that the sale of deer antler headbands are about to go through the roof in Aberdeen are unconfirmed).

The ATOS Experience – Part 1

Articles, Community, Information, Opinion No Responses »

Apr 222011

By Tania Harris.

I am a hard worker, some may even say an over achiever, and I always have been.

For the last 10 years I have suffered from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, or M.E. for short, having contracted this following a viral flu like illness. Nevertheless, I struggled on for 10 years in a senior management position of a company I had founded.

We carried out work for our dear government rolling out the Out of School Childcare initiative. The company became the largest of its kind in the North East. It was hard but enjoyable and rewarding work.

In June 2010 I had a major relapse in health, which had accumulated from several smaller relapses. This has left me severely impaired and housebound/bed bound ninety percent of the time. My health has not improved despite long and frustrating sessions with physiotherapists, and the usual lack of support services for chronic M.E sufferers.

I receive higher rate mobility and middle rate care payments on Disability Living Allowance and my GP has started to do over the phone appointments, as she knows a visit to the surgery will set me back for a week.

I went onto Employment Support Allowance after my statutory sick pay ran out and I had to give up work. It is unlikely I will ever get back into a regular ‘9 to 5’ job and I am hoping the Job Centre can find me something where I sit in bed and lick envelopes all day or the like. I cannot explain how demoralising and degrading it is to become a “disabled statistic” and to see first hand how people in this position are treated.

I cannot be referred for mental health support as I am not clinical depressed. However, ‘invalided’ and ‘discriminated against’ can be used to describe my experiences.

And so, let me introduce ATOS Healthcare, the caring ‘health professionals’ – and their role in assessing our ability to work – despite what other proper health professionals say. So far I am keeping an open mind but here are my experiences so far and I hope to share them with you as the story unfolds.

I have determined to stay in employment in defiance of my health condition

At 2pm on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon, I got a call from the ATOS Appointments Centre. I wonder how much overtime they are getting paid for working weekends? Are they checking to see if I am at home at the weekend?

Of course I’m at home. I am rarely able to enjoy the outdoors anymore.

That aside, the lady is nice and quite helpful – although she has definitely not read my recently returned form, describing my situation and my need to be assessed in the first place.

After going through all this with her she thinks I might qualify for a home visit or taxi pick up, as the assessment centre is a bit of a walk from the nearest car park. Although it is on ground level, people in wheelchairs or those reliant on walking aids, as I do, pose a fire risk in the building due to the speed they can be evacuated. She asks me to get my GP to fax them a letter detailing more info on my condition in order to assess the need for a home visit.

A day later, a letter arrived inviting me to the assessment centre for my appointment on the “provisional date” she first mentioned. Confused, I gave them a call to discuss the conversation about the GP fax etc. The man on the other end explained that they had to generate something on the computer after first contact and I should call them in a week to “move the appointment on a bit”.

This is to give them time to assess my GP letter when it arrives – as they do not approve home visits unless completely necessary, and some people are not genuine.

Hmmm… This may be true in some cases, but considering that the nature and extent of my disability has been long established and monitored by medical professionals, and that I have determined to stay in employment in defiance of my health condition, it really irks me that because of a perceived “high level of benefit fraud” the government chooses to treat me as guilty until proven innocent.

Anyhow I am waiting to see what will happen next. It is ironic that I had my first Atos contact during a time I was not in receipt of benefit. They had not processed my sick line and simply cut off my payments (with no explanation or contact).

Hopefully it will be paid soon and my anxiety regarding how ATOS will view my claim will prove to be unfounded.

… I’ll let you know.

Photography credits –
© Chiyacat | Dreamstime.com
http://www.dreamstime.com/free-stock-image-male-doctor-rimagefree4080630-resi3350874

A Guide To Your Employment Rights

Articles, Community, Featured, Information No Responses »

Jan 142011

As the recession bites and more and more of us are threatened with unemployment, Dianne Sutherland offers guidance on what you need to know if you’re a temporary or fixed term employee.

If you work for a local authority, you’ve probably come across the unfortunate term natural wastage.

It is a term that has become popular in the world of councilspeak, found in budget updates, press releases and at team discussions. It refers, in part, to the non-renewal of the contracts of fixed term and temporary workers and is proposed as a means towards meeting the huge savings imposed upon local authorities by central government budget cuts.

Aberdeenshire Council has been told to make savings of £52 million over the next few years, which equates to an estimated 10% loss in the workforce. There can be no doubt that natural wastage will impact heavily on the many fixed term workers in council posts. To highlight this point, a 2010 Aberdeenshire Council review of support for learning auxiliaries revealed that out of 1000 workers, or 475 full time equivalent posts, only 30% have a permanent contract. The remainder are either fixed term or relief contracts.

The good news is that legislation protects fixed term and temporary workers, under the Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002. These regulations were introduced to comply with European Employment Law.

You should always seek professional advice, but here are a few pointers that might help if you find your job is under threat:

1. In most cases, if you have two years or more of continuous service you have a statutory right to redundancy. An employer or employee cannot waive this right since the implementation of the Regulations on October 1 2002.

2. Continuous service means service without a break by the same employer, it doesn’t matter if you have been employed in different posts, it is the continuity that counts, and there can even be a short break in the employment.

3. If you have a right to redundancy, you also have a right to redeployment. Check your employer’s policy on this. Your employer should redeploy you 12 weeks before the end of your contract. Written notice should be served at this time.

4. If you are made redundant you have an entitlement to time off to look for other work or to participate in training.

5. There is a limit to the period of time during which an employer can legitimately use fixed term contracts without providing justification for doing so.

Even if you have less than 2 years service, your employer must treat your dismissal fairly

If you have more than 4 years continuous service under a fixed term contract, you may have a right to permanent employment status unless your employer can objectively justify the continued use of fixed term contracts beyond the 4-year period.

You have a right to request a written statement on your employment status and your employer must provide this within 21 days. If you have worked under more than one contract, permanency takes effect at the 4-year point. If you have worked under the same contract for the 4-year period, permanency takes effect at the next contract renewal date. A recent landmark case further strengthened the position of fixed term workers when a tribunal ruled that the University of Aberdeen could not objectively justify the use of external funding to keep researcher Dr Andrew Ball as a fixed term employee, and his contract was made permanent.

6. External funding does not affect your relationship with your employer. It is your employer who has a duty to uphold your rights, not the funder.

7. Even if you have less than 2 years service, your employer must treat your dismissal fairly. Failure to do so can result in a claim for unfair dismissal. The Statutory Dispute Resolution Procedure applies to fixed term contracts. Failure by your employer to implement the correct procedure can be deemed unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.

8. If you are unhappy with the way your employer is treating you, contact your trade union representative for advice. Raise the matter in writing in the first instance, but if this does not resolve the issue, you can raise a formal grievance. In some cases you may need to pursue an employment tribunal but you should explore all other avenues to resolve the situation first.

9. Finally, keep records of all communications with your employer. You will need to present evidence to support your case at either an official grievance hearing or at an employment tribunal. You will be able to call witnesses and may supply further written evidence to support your case.

Information on employment rights is available at www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/index.htm and on the Business Link website.

Free advice is available by telephone from ACAS and the Citizens Advice Bureau; many local authorities have Employee Assistance Programmes which can give independent advice. Some household insurance policies cover free limited legal advice and several legal firms provide a free initial advisory session. If you are not already a member, join a trade union, but ask around and get the best representation for your case.

Newer Entries