Janitors in £7000 pay cut storm
MISERLY North Lanarkshire Council has given low-paid janitors the bleakest possible start to 2009 with salary cuts of up to £7000 a year, the News has been told.
A long-awaited pay review is set to come into effect through a sweeping review of janitorial services in a move which has prompted fears of extreme financial hardship.
There are claims that an overtime ban will leave janitors with as little as FOUR HOURS' worth of extra payment per week.
The News understands that a full complement of overtime netted in a sum of 200 weekly - but that sum has plummeted as low as 60.
The council insists however that the review MUST be implemented to ensure that the regulations comply with the Local Government in Scotland Act by providing 'best value' for council tax payers.
It also insists that the role of janitorial staff has changed over the years as schools are used on an out-of-hours basis by the wider community - and that new, cost-effective means of working must be found.
Janitors claim that NLC officials have told them that the review will give them a better work-life balance - in a move which provoked fury from janitors who say they do not know how their dependents will cope with such a dramatic slump in their income.
Earlier coverage of this issue in this newspaper last year prompted a flurry of feedback from hard-pressed janitorial staff who believe that they have been completed sidelined by their paymasters.
And with the cuts looming ever closer, feelings continue to run high - especially as the credit crunch shows no sign of loosening its grip.
One janitor who did not want to be named said: "Management just keep chipping away at the low paid workers. It is appalling.
"The Government has bailed banks out but who is going to bail out the janitors when they are getting evicted or taken to court because they can't pay their mortgages or rents plus their debts?'' he added.
SNP councillor Alan O'Brien has been liaising with a number of local janitors with a bid to getting them a fairer deal - but said that he continued to be disappointed by the approach of NLC.
Councillor O'Brien said: ''I am obviously concerned about the money that is being lost by staff here but there is another issue here which greatly concerns me.
"There has been a wall of silence about this issue. There hasn't been any debate about this in any council papers,'' said Councillor O'Brien - who believes that environmental services convener Helen McKenna has a lot to answer to.
"When I raised my concerns at a full council meeting, my question was refused,'' said Councillor O'Brien.
"And when I submitted written questions on this issue to Helen McKenna via email, not only did I not receive a reply, I found out that the emails in question were being deleted before they were even read,'' he claimed.
NLC bosses would not be drawn on these claims but denied that the proposals had sidestepped the democratic process.
Graham Patrick, head of facility support services, said: "The service has considered and developed an approach intended to maximise service delivery and customer satisfaction and to comply with working time regulations.
"The current proposal is designed to be flexible, to meet stakeholder needs, to meet working time regulations, to create new jobs and to save the council – and as a result council taxpayers – around 100,000,'' he said.
"Consultation is taking place with the trade unions to enable full discussion of the proposals, and to allow janitorial staff to have their say.
"A report on the outcome of the consultation process with the trade unions will be presented to both the environmental services committee and to full council early this year."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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