1,000 Shropshire Council staff agree to pay cut
Monday 22nd August 2011, 11:29AM BST.
More than 1,000 employees at Shropshire Council have agreed to take a pay cut and accept new terms and conditions, officials said today.
The number, out of a total of 6,500, have so far voluntarily accepted the plans put forward by chief executive Kim Ryley.
Union leaders today claimed the response would be “massively disappointing” for the authority – but council chiefs said staff still had six weeks to reply to the letters.
Unison is preparing to issue ballot papers this week calling for possible strike action over the controversial policy.
Alan James, branch secretary for Shropshire Unison, today claimed the number of responses had left council officials “embarrassed.”
The council sent out letters to staff last month which explained they would be dismissed on September 30 – but re-hired the next day if they agreed to a 5.4 per cent pay cut and new terms and conditions.
Unison, which represents about 40 per cent of the workforce, has instructed its members not to reply to a letter sent out by Mr Ryley calling for staff to accept the pay cut.
Council chiefs say they need to make £76 million of savings and that its wage-cut proposals would spare it having to make up to 500 redundancies.
Mr James said: “To be honest we are really pleased that it’s only so few that have responded to the council’s letter. It’s massively disappointing for the authority.
“The letter was designed to be intimidating but it hasn’t worked.
“We also know that quite a substantial number of people who responded in the first week have since had time to reflect on it and have asked for their letters back.”
Jackie Kelly, corporate head of organisational development at Shropshire Council, today said: “Staff still have six weeks to reply to the letters issued – more than a thousand staff have already replied, and we expect plenty more to do so throughout September when the summer holidays are over.
“Although there was a deadline of August 31 for staff to voluntarily accept the new terms and conditions, we will still accept all replies during September.”
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What cuts to pay, expenses and conditions are senior council officers and councillors accepting?
After all, ‘we’re all in this together’, yes?
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5% and the same milage reductions
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disgusting behaviour imo short term cost saving but long term reputational damage to the corporation at the moment they can probably get away with it but once the economy picks up they wont be able to recruit anyone decent if at all, ultimately you pay peanuts you get monkeys
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Agree? Did the people of Palestine AGREE to give their farms up to build houses for Israelies, did the native americans AGREE to give up their land for the new American nation, if you put a gun to my head i suspect i would AGREE to anything…
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Calm down dear!
It is a bit rich comparing the council to your examples…
I wonder if your next reply has them manning concentration camps.
I really do hope you arent working in the public sector!
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At 14:54 you werent working anywhere, are you andy from pandy by chance?
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Surprisingly I was, (and am), at work.
Just because you are only capable of menial work with no discretion as to workload dont think that everyone is chained to a factory assembly line.
Tut, tut, tut.
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OH DEAR ANDY! Too many ,(), to make any sense in that first line. Judging by your posts I have sussed that you are employed as a comedian,you make lots of us laugh anyway. I have met many L.A. executives as I advise on long term investments, so no I dont work on a production line!! Looking at investing in barren areas presently, could consider lending you some cash for you to complete your education as you have so much time on your hands…..
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So 1,000 have agreed to the terms, still leaves 5,500. I wonder what would happen if the rest just thought `stick the job`,wonder how the council would run then.
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in the real world (private sector) i lost all my overtime and i have mates who took 20% wage cuts to see them through the recession, it is time to make the public sector (la la land) take its share of the medicine now too, fairs fair, we suffered and so now its time to for the council workers to pay
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So basically, you are still getting paid the same amount. I think you should take a 5% pay cut and a reduction in your pension like the public sector workers. Fair’s fair eh.
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Would this be the same pension funds that were raided by Brown in order pay council worker pay rises in past years?
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what pay rises, any awards I have received over the last decade have been at or below inflation. For the last three years, the pay award has been zero and my car mileage allowance has been removed. I am substantially worse off now that 5 years ago.
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So just because you were too spineless to stand up to your greedy employer, and instead chose to allow the cost of the greed and incompetence of the rich to be visited upon you, whilst they remain protected by hugely advantageous tax breaks, you now expect other groups of workers to fall in line and be equally acquiescent.
I’m sure the current government love forelock-tugging compliant people like you. You’re just the sort of willing saps that they need to implement their ideologically-driven damage to our public services, whilst propagating the lie that ‘we’re all in it together’
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Peter. I’m pleased to see you are back with your usual rubbish, we all have missed you over the last couple of weeks, hope you had a nice holiday.
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Oh dear more more trivial comments from John Boy.
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John,
As usual, you have posted a comment entirely devoid of facts – and simply chosen to use insults. Isn’t that rather lamentable in a man of your age?
If your view of the news extends beyond the tabloids, you may have noticed that today, the current government have made an arrangement with Swiss banks, to allow some of the richest people in this country to get away with their long-term tax-evasion (that’s criminal tax-evasion – not legal, but morally dubious tax avoidance).
Instead of pursuing the many companies and wealthy individuals to pay their tax, they seek to take the money from ordinary working people – they’re even talking about cutting the 50% tax rate for the wealthiest!
Please explain why you’re happy that the rich are being protected at the expense of the rest of us – private or public sector?
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Well said Peter if only John thought before he writes he might get something right.
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Peter,
How do you know how old John is?
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If anybody is interested in the history of lost factories in Shrewsbury and the conditions of employment. Go to
www. made in shrewsbury.co.uk. Click on Warner- Swasey. Photographs and documents will be added later.
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Peter. As I see it it is the rich that are creating the jobs for the rest of you. Simple, just invest all your money and put your house up as security take out a bank loan and start up a company of your own like say, Alan Sugar, and there are many more who took the risk. No you would be not prepared to do this, so don’t moan about those who have. You work for a large company do you despise the owner for being rich?
E. I’m in my 70th year and spent most of my life in engineering.
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those parasites take over 2000 pounds from me every year we get nothing out here no street lighting no litter picking, nothing and they dont even come down the lane and collect my bin any more, the whole thing should be abolished, talk about saving jobs, nonesense i say sack the lot of them there is too many councillors and council workers all working a cushy 35 hour week with endless teabreaks while I graft for sometimes 70 hours a week just to keep them in pension, the whole idea of local democracy in this country has failed, it should be scrapped completely, let whitehall run the schools and let the private sector run the rest of it, i wouldnt even notice if shropshire council did not exist frankly i would just be better off financially
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The world according to Gerard. What a happy, jolly place that must be.
Oh hold on a sec, it doesn’t exist does it? Just another made up fantasy from the mind of one who inhabits the world of the terminally clueless.
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Think the terminally clueless would object to that Mark!!
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41.8% of the Council’s budget is spent on Education.
Evidently another service that you neglected to take advantage of…
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Apparently no schools either if your spelling, grammar, and logic is anything to go by.
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I have worked in the public sector and the private sector and the voluntary sector for many many years now and I must say that I have met kind and generous people and lazy and imorale people in all of these environments, greed is not exlusive to the private sector let me tell you but equally you mark my words there are plenty of people in the private sector who take alot of sickies and are generally slacking,
we must never stereotype when considering individuals, they are by definition unique
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The conference jollies will make up for any losses suffered by senior officers!.
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OMG are they stupid or what? Why would you sign away your redundancy terms just before they announce all the redundancies!? these people are going to get sacked, sacked, sacked on the cheap, cheap, cheap
foolish, foolish, foolish
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Jon,
Employees of Shropshire Council may be a lot of things, but stupid they’re not. Their redundancy terms were removed without consultation or question. The Corporate Management Team railroaded the changes through, despite everyone knowing that medium to large scale redundancies are “potentially” on the horizon. Its just a cheap way of the CMT getting shot of staff. The same process is being used with the pay cut, its a simple case of agree to it and we’ll do it, or don’t agree to it, and we’ll do it anyway!!
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KT,
You are also forgetting that lowering redundancy and pension payments and reducing staff terms and conditions makes outsourcing council services easier. Private sector organisations will look at the increased margins with glee. Results of outsourcing will be lower service standards, further reduced terms and conditions for staff, the bosses picking up even bigger pay packets and Council tax being used to generate profit.
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#7 Keith I entirely agree but in the private sector you don’t have this second and even third tier of unqualified do gooders (do good for themselves mainly) called councillors.
The county and town councillors even oppose each other at times at our expense.
If you are spending other people’s money it is easy to come up with extravagent schemes which seem to be about self promotion, anyway. If they fall by the wayside because they were not properly thought through or properly costed then who cares? The designed plans and the consultees that were used are all paid for out of the public purse, not an individuals pocket but in the end that is the same thing because it is all our pockets.
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im not a lawyer but if i were there i would say DONT SIGN ANYTHING!!!
this is bound to go to court and possibly result in compensation payment for the thousands who didnt sign and were unfairly and illegally sacked
all those who signed just gave up £1000′s in unfair dismissal payments and redundancy payouts
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Yes, but those that did sign will still have a job…have you spotted the flaw in your plan yet?
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Spot on Terry, you give up your job to get £1000′s in unfair dismissal payments but at the end you still have no job, how long will the payouts last?
Redundancy can only be paid if the job is not there after you’ve left your post, the job is still on offer, so you can’t get redundancy.
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here we go again public sector workers on 30-40 k a year living in 5 bed houses in the countryside driving their audi and BMW cars to shirehall every day and they complain about 5%, they dont know how lucky they are, i am self employed and i regularly work 60 hour weeks, if i dont get up in the morning i dont get paid at all, and my wife works at boots for minimum wage and yet you wont here me complaining, if you want more money stop complaining and get more qualifications so you can get a better job or work some overtime
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what like the bin men and the care home nurses who are on £6 an hour!! Come on Ryan GET REAL!
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Yes Ryan, here we go again with the usual rubbish spouted about the public sector by people who haven’t a clue. After all, it’s so easy to believe all you read in the tabloids or hear from a friend of a friend in the pub isn’t it?. Why bother to investigate fact when lies and smokescreens abound eh?
Five bed houses? BMWs and Audis? £30 to £40k? You and those like you are so far from reality it’s laughable.
For the record (not that you’ll take too much notice), myself and the vast majority of my colleagues earn below the supposed national average, I live in a two bed semi and drive a budget brand car. I regularly work 40 to 50 hours a week, and often work for two weeks continuously.
Grow up Ryan.
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mark, when you state:
“I regularly work 40 to 50 hours a week, and often work for two weeks continuously.”
I think you have blown your own argument out of the water.
Myself and everone else in the private sector has to work more than two weeks continuously because we get the usual 4-6 weeks leave per annum and not what can only be described as mickey taking amounts of time off.
Drongo! :)
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andy 4-6 weeks leave per annum is also standard in the public sector, only teachers have extra leave no one else does so dont worry you’re not missing out, of course if the leave is so good i guess you could go to uni and train to be a teacher if you like?
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Blown my argument out of the water how exactly Andy?
I think you’ll find most employees of either sector get weekends off, and if they don’t then they’re usually compensated with days of elsewhere in the working week.
You get the “usual four to six weeks off” do you? Congratulations, so do I, so how am I getting “mickey taking amounts of time off” if this is the same as you in the private sector then? Your own words – read them!
As for your sign off – seems to display a desperate level of immaturity doesn’t it? No surprise then that you’re clearly incapable of making a valid and accurate observation.
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I think he means with no weekend break.
Drongo.
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i think your statement is ‘factually inaccurate’ to say the least ryan
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Utter tosh Ryan – as a public sector worker (nurse) I work on average 50 hours per week and we dont get over time, its shift based work thats the very nature of it
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2 Bed house and I catch the bus to work mate on my 18k a year.
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DOH!
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Oh Ryan,
Get more qualifications – I studied 5 years for my degree whilst working full time.
Public sector workers on 30-40k a year – I wish, I earn nowhere near that.
Living in a 5 bed house in the countryside – nope, still living at home. At 34 years of age I can’t afford to buy my own house.
And yes – I work in the public sector!!
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rediculous ryan you obviously dont have a clue
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Like others, I have also worked in both private and public sectors. Public sector was best but not because of the pay (always lower), but because the employer treated you better and more consideration is given to your rights at work. But that’s all changing with Shropshire Council..
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I hope that council tax payers in Shropshire are ready for the financial consequences of the Council’s action.
The Council at Southampton are undertaking a similar exercise, and are now in the midst of a long campaign of strike action which is severaly disrupting services. They have also budgeted £1.5million for the legal costs of fighting the hundreds of cases, which staff are taking to the Employment Tribunal. This is before the costs of any compensation awards!
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these councillors are mostly all millionaires making decisions which effect some of the poorest workers in shropshire, it makes me sick, its just like the national cabinet of millionaires cutting peoples benefits
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So you would rather have unsuccessful businessmen as councillors!
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more the fool them
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Good on them for agreeing to this, its surely better than losing your job right? i understand why people wouldnt like it but if you help the organisation you work for save money in the long term this benefits all the staff
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The minority that signed are either senior managers or they do not understand their legal rights. As the union has stated, many that initially signed up have now realised their stupidity and have asked for their letters back. This is just a bad attempt at Propaganda by the Council. I think some of them live in a la la land equivalent to that of Gadaffi
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clearly the dregs will cling to their non jobs and stick around even for less pay, anybody with any real commercial talent will jump ship and get a better paid job elsewhere, the scary consequence of this – shropshire council could well end up even more inept and inefficient in the long run!
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If these people dont sign they should be sacked, there are millions of people queuing up on the dole who could do their job for half the price, if the work shy council jobsworth beaurocrats dont want the work, get some poles in to do it, they know the value of a real days work I tell you, if you dont have a bit of a sweat on by the end of the day you are not working hard enough! When I was a lad I was working 60 hour weeks on the farm from about aged 13 and its not done me any harm I tell you, all these strikers and looters they are dragging this country down, britain used to be great before labour came along demanding wages for workers it only leads to less jobs in the long run there is a finite pot of money so labour aggitators in the socialist workers party are just costing this country jobs in the end
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Britain Great before Labour came along?
Poverty,Rickets, industrial accidents, children going up chimneys, no education past primary school, school one day a week on a sunday, only sunday off work if you were lucky, dark satanic mills, people unable to pay for proper healthcare, etc, etc,
I think you need to go and look at the history books particularly those relating to industrial relations!
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Judging by his spelling and punctuation it doesn’t look like books (history or otherwise) are Mr Evans’ forte.
I doubt if he’d get a public sector job with his standards of literacy.
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“britain used to be great before labour came along demanding wages for workers”
Quite right! Let them eat coal!
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Sounds like a Monty Python sketch, tell the youngsters now they dont believe you! I tell you, priceless!! If you stayed a farm worker in a tied cottage you were thrown out when you retire. Oh yeah guess where most people died at work? Dip any sheep have you – might explain your memory loss. Good idea bring back slave labour, workers being killed in avoidable acciedents,as long as it didn’t do you any harm. Apart from the bale of hay that must have dropped on your head!
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go back to reading the daily mail mr evans the real world will keeping growing and progressing around you
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Are you drunk?
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“…..but once the economy picks up they wont be able to recruit anyone decent if at all, ultimately you pay peanuts you get monkeys”
Al, would these be the same sort of monkeys that spend countless thousands of our money on pointless traffic lights that aren’t needed, one way systems that don’t work, reducing speed limits needlessly, reducing dual carriageways to single lane needlessly, spending many thousands on pointless “artwork”, spending over the odds on ligt bulbs, hotel rooms and whatever else people in the real world wouldn’t…I hope we get a better “real world experienced” monkey in exchange!
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Councillors decisions, not staff decisions.
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Ok, so are you telling me that some bright councillor decides to put traffic lights on an island or change the system in Welshpool to a one way…he then decides himself if it will work and organises it all? ….I don’t think so…it’s the office workers (officers for short) who have the responsibility of working out the mechanics of the project and deciding if it will work…unfortunately they are not bright enough to tell the councillor that it would be a disaster…and the result is disasters all round with councillors blaming “officers” and lazy “officers” blaming councillors,am I right or am I right?
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Or (if you dont read the Daily Mail but take the guardian instead) the same workers who look after disabled children, catch muggers with CCTV, keep our burial records, enforce our planning rules, teach our children how to ride a bike safely, run our swimming baths, clean our streets, wipe our mums bum and collect our bins.
Stop reading the Daily Mail Roadrunner and you may notice some of the of the positive things the Council does too (including traffic management which saves lives and protects the environment)
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Da, I’m not disputing the council do some very positive and useful things , usually by the frontline staff which is paid for by our council tax but they also do some very silly, wasteful things, usually by the flotsome which wouldn’t be missed…unfortunately these people are still getting paid out of our council tax and I don’t need to read the daily mail to know that.
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Private sector don’t make mistakes? lets see, New flavour Coke, Hoover flight offers, sub prime investments, credit default swops etc, etc, etc.
Private Industry is littered with errors over the past 40 years totalling billions upon billions of pounds!
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on this very day 400 UNIQ workers have been laid off and those greedy council workers are asking for yet more of my taxes, i would very much like to sack the lot of them and give those poor workers from the creamery their jobs instead atleast they would value them and not expect a £500,000 pension and 10 weeks a year of holidays
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Oh dear oh dear STFC4Life, you really couldn’t make it up could you?
Oh wait, you just did.
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How many of the UNIQ workers are chartered accountants or qualified environmental health officers?
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Don’t make it too complicated for him, he cant understand facts. Afterall making cream must be the same as making a COSHH assessment right? Put them all in managment roles they have cleary be trained for all these years!
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Having left replies to comments over the recent stories concerning Shropshire Council, and having them consistently removed, I’m beginning to wonder if the moderator of this board is working for Shropshire Council?
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So you would rather have unsuccessful businessmen as councillors
Isn’t that what we already have? Most are early retired teachers, hardly business people or use the councillor allowances to top up inadequate pensions or income.
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“Most are early retired teachers” – do you mean the majority? Please justify this statistic.
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i think this has happened before in the private sector it is legal i beleive but considered highly immorale and not good practice with regard to employee relations it is also very likely that the council has not followed the statutory consultation process adequately and will have to deal with industrial action and complete loss of faith in future negotiations which could result in more cost than savings in the longer term
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good on the brave 5,000 + who have held out, it must be unbearable pressure to put wife and kids through when the mortgage company is breathing down your neck, and your years of honest toil and an exemplary CV is under threat of being tarnished with the sack, as if being made redundant isnt traumatic enough, being sacked so you are uneligle for benefits and potentially unemployable thereafter, it must be alot for people to deal with on top of the day to day stress of life, love, work, kids, health, wealth etc.
I dont really know what to say but despite the disgusting remarks of a few on here be strong and stick to your principles, and be aware there are some people in shropshire who support your stand.
The way i see it, a contract is a contract, you dont “welsh” on a deal in the english borderlands, i have the utmost respect for public servants who choose careers which provide for others often at the expense of personal gain, and i may be niave but i like to think there isnt a court in the land that wouldnt back you up
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Emotive language – are all of the “5,000″ married and do they all have “kids”?. Why would the mortgage company be “breathing down your neck” if hitherto you’ve been making repayments on time?
Why would working for Shropshire Council mean that you have an “exemplary CV”? Why would Shropshire Council employees find coping with the pressures brought about by the current economic climate greater than anyone else in the “day to day stress of life, love, work, kids, health, wealth etc.”?
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Yeah good point David, its only the ones with kids that count, just sack the young single people they have less to worry about
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The majority of council staff are every day people who are not earning 30/40 K as so many people keep mentioning on here.They are the ones who have no say in decisions but work hard often in difficult circumstances.As a council employee I would cope with almost any changes to keep the job I love, although it is hard when sometimes those who make the decisions do not come across as caring about their workforce, and when you see councillors being given expensive ipads to replace computers, vast sponsorship of events like the flower show etc. I agree that we need to save money but I would like to be able to feel that my salary cut was being used for something essential and worthwhile!
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I think the main article is a little misleading.
Employees had 4 choices in the letter they received: 1) accept the changes voluntarily and then their letters of termination would be withdrawn (this had to be done before 31 August). 2) Sign to say they accept the termination of employment and accept the new contract by 30 September. 3) Sign nothing but continue to turn up to work as normal after 30 September(by virtue of continuing to turn up to work they would be seen as accepting the new terms and conditions). Or 4) Inform the Council that they will not accept the new terms and conditions by 31 August, and then their employment is terminated.
So in reality a council employee either voluntarily accept the change, explicity accept the forced change, tacitly accept the forced change, or leaves the organisation.
It is obviously in the employers interest that employees accept the changes voluntarily, as it closes the door on industrial action or employment tribunals.
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There is a fifth option, reject the terms and conditions, continue to work and take the issue to an industrial tribunal. I believe the Unions are already preparing the groundwork for this action.
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option 6 SUE THE PANTS OFF THEM!
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As usual wrong. Not a single member of the Cabinet is an ex teacher and the majority of councillors have a business background.
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Well said – see my comments above
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i do think it is very sad that people loose their jobs, or have to take pay cuts etc. The trouble with public sector work, is a lot of personel went straight into these organisations after leaving school/ further education and no, no different. Most have a real shock to think that they have to work lunches, tea breaks make up time for hospital/dental/doctor appointments, cannot leave if they have trouble at home with family or child care. They really are quite blinkered to the REAL working world in Britain today.
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Darel – they may not ‘no’ about working for profit, but atleast the ‘know’ how to spell
ps – after 4 years of higher education, I did 12 years in the private sector and now two in the public sector (MOD) so I do know the difference
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Darel what you describe happens in any professional environment in many sectors, i appreciate it doesnt happen in a factory job for some people and that is unfortunate but when you work in an office with a team of people its not the end of the world to be out for 5 minutes and catch up later, you do the hours but you set your own pattern of working, you have a work life balance, you duck out for a dental appointment (for which employers are legally obliged to give you time off as its a medical procedure!) then you stay late for that night to make up the hours, its flexible for both the employer and the employee, its not slacking to look after your children for god sake its just the real world of working for most service sector jobs
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I have never worked in as factory so I wouldn’t KNOW. As for legally obliged, thats where the blinkers start to appear. Some firms will ignore any legalities.Cause any sort of trouble and guess what, your out(that includes dental appointments).Unfair dismissel £7000. Well worth a hit to rid a company of a so called “trouble maker”. Thats what happens in the real world.
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these moaning council workers should be grateful they have a job, look at the poor people at uniq, they dont get i pads either!
i just hope i see a reduction in my council tax commensurate with the reduction in staff
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Frederic,
The Ipads were issued to councillors – not the staff working for the council.
Do try and keep up.
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Untrue. Only 16 went to councillors, including the leaders of the Labour and Lib/Dem groups. The rest went to officers including one of the dog wardens
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People should be aware that Council workers are also local voters, taxpayers and home owners as well, you dont just live in a box marked public sector, I personally I have worked between the two and many colleagues are the same. Also increasingly the line is blurred for example many bankers and railway workers are now public sector workers following nationalisation, but at the same time many NHS cleaners, street sweepers and even teachers are PRIVATE sector workers following outsourcing or differing forms of ownership model.
It doesnt change your personality overnight if you work in the public sector, we are still the same people we just dont make a profit, its not a bad thing it can make for a better working environment being not-for-profit just ask workers at Oxfam, the Scouts, Help the Aged, Childline, the Co-op Supermarket, Railtrack or LV Insurance for example, profit isnt everything
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if they were any good they wouldnt take it and get a job somewhere else, the very fact that they are still there suggests to me they are deseperate for work and not that good at their job
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Or the fact that there are very few decent jobs out there? Let alone a spare 5000 of them.
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“Although there was a deadline of August 31 for staff to voluntarily accept the new terms and conditions, we will still accept all replies during September.”
not really much of a deadline then!
no wonder nothing gets done on time in the public sector!
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WHAT UTTER TOSH SOME OF YOU BLINKERED OIKS WRITE, WHAT THIS COUNCIL ARE DOING SORRY KIM RYLEY/KEITH BARROW IS TO SYSTEMATICALLY STRIP AWAY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND OTHER BENEFITS THAT THE STAFF HAD ALL IN THE NAME OF SAVING MONEY, IF SHROPSHIRE COUNCIL SOLD OFF 10% OF THE PROPERTIES IT INHERITED FROM THE FORMER DISTRICT COUNCILS THEY COULD POCKET £80 MILLION, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ALL THE INVESTMENTS THE DISTRICTS HAD SABC £50MILLION PLUS ETC WHERES THE MILLIONS PUT ASIDE TO REPLACE THE CRUMBLING QUARRY SWIMMING CENTRE? WHY EXTERNALISE SERVICES WHEN IT HAS ALWAYS PROVED TO BE COSTLIER TYPICAL TORY ATTITUDE, REMEMBER MAD MAGGIE SELL SELL SELL UNTIL THERE WAS NOTHING LEFT
YOU WILL ALL SUFFER ONE WAY OR ANOTHER CUTS IN SERVICES ETC TRIED TO CATCH A BUS RECENTLY OVER 60S NOW HAVE TO PAY FOR PARK & RIDE BE WARNED ITS NOT JUST STAFF WHO WILL SUFFER. THIS GOVERNMENT WASTE BILLIONS OF OUR TAXES EVERY YEAR AND THIS COUNCIL PROBABLY WASTE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS IF NOT MORE, BOYS JOLLIES I PADS £28000 HOSPITALITY ITS MOST LIKELY TO BE THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG THANK GOD FOR FREEDOM OF INFO ACT
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Is this one of those magic eye pictures?
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Are you familiar with the shift key and the concept of the full stop?
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And I think it’s sad that people can’t spell a simple 4-letter word like ‘lose’.
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As I said Spud, retired so allowances top up meagre pension or income from businesses supplemented by councillor allowances with the added attraction of useful networking to boot.
BTW Who said that we were only referring to councillors on the cabinet.
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they must be on good money if they can afford to do that, personally i couldnt afford a 5% pay cut
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harsh – that will seriously ruin your career – i guess you would not be able to get another job after that due to stigma and question marks it must raise over your character and professionalism.
what are the grounds for dismissal, must be gross misconduct right?
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No, it’s not a reflection on the employee at all or their character. The reason is ‘some other substantial reason’ there would be no justification for gross misconduct.
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Will Rhodes, I think I probably agree with quite a bit of what you say, but when you type in all caps with no punctuation to speak of, it’s just too much to wade through.
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What’s the betting that all of the spelling,grammer and punctuation errors are from people slating the council employees!! all of you keep to your menial jobs and let us intelligent AND literate folk have the better paid jobs.
You obviously have poorly paid ‘jobs’ that you have so much time to think about utter utter drivel, I must say i do pity the existence some of you have….
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You spelt grammar incorrectly. Missed a capital letter off ‘All’. You forgot to use a capital for ‘I’. Shall I go on?
If you criticise other people’s spelling and grammar you should probably ensure that yours is perfect first. I’m also not entirely sure I even understand the point you are making.
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“Spelling,grammer and punctuation”? Or are you being ironical?
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’1,000 Shropshire Council Staff Agree to Pay Cut’?
I look forward to further headlines such as ‘Man agrees to hand over wallet to mugger’.
‘Darel’ persists with this nonsense that public sector workers can just turn up, do as much work as they do or don’t fancy doing and tootle off home.
I work in the Civil Service, rather than local government and can assure him it’s not the case.
Public sector jobs are as ‘real’ as those in the private sector – if not more so. After all we have to try and keep ALL the people happy, ALL the time. The private sector has only to worry about the bottom line.
The private sector doesn’t have to keep people who are of no value to their business happy. The public sector does.
We also have stringent targets set by the secretary of state, and have to achieve a set level of performance.
If your employer does not allow for pay you for dental and hospital appointments or genuine doestic emergencies (you’ll find that in this case public sector employees DO have to work back the time, except in very specific circumstances), then this is nothing to brag about.
It’s the sign of a poor employer and poor employer-employee relations.
Almost inevitably it’s a result of the absence of an effective union. Y’know, those ever derided ‘trouble makers’, who try to make sure that employers treat their employees as human beings rather than robots.
I’m sure the public sector may occasionally fall short. But can you hand-on-heart say you’ve never had poor service from shops, estate agents, banks, mechanics, car dealers, builders, plumbers, travel agents…?
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I think the workers are being fairly dignified just ignoring the threatening letter, my reply would be swift and simple, something like
Dear Mr council, thank you for your correspondance, i am disapointed to have been sacked without a reason, i feel you are in breach of contract, and so i will see you in court mr ryley
as for mr barrow, we will all see you at the ballot box
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Sorry Kath i didnt mean it to be in cap lock,
Anyway here we go again, just picked up the shropshire star to read, low and behold the wasters are at it again £2500 for consultants to study what employees think of Kim & Keith etc they have only to walk around the building to see the glum faces, do they think its sick office syndrome? no im sad to say its is a very hacked off staff who are as i have already said sick to death of the Tory way of stripping terms and conditions and reducing pay led by a chief exec who has been brought in by various tory led councils to do this, Oh i forgot we are all in this together but strangely enough some more than others.
Cut the waste, cut there pay and generous allowances, no more jollies, i pads,hospitality champagne binges etc.
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Spot on Steve, trouble is KB has quite a while to go before next elections.
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most people on 30,000 a year could take that but on 20, or what about those part timers on 10 or 5,000 a year? is it really fair for them to “share the pain” i think not
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good on them for making a donation to the deficit, if we all were just less selfish and dontated say £5,000 each to the government this would almost cover the cost of the banking crisis, its not too much to ask surely for people to give a bit back either paying more tax or just taking less salary or just dip into your pension or isa or savings account, your country needs you, come on pay up, just for a few years just til the banks get back to profit, everyone should do it, well most people, i mean im not going to obviously i more equal that you but so long as someone pays the debt off then we can all get back on the champagne and cavier
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owch!
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“agreed” to take a pay cut??????
thats like getting punched in the face in the street and saying “well he were asking for it”
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Never mind it saves the taxpayer money and the workers will be ok because they can go on the dole and claim taxpayers money
Doh! that doesnt add up
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While it may be interesting to debate the pros and cons of the situation relating to council workers I think you are all being distracted from the real problems to come. Mr Barrow and his cohorts are planning to change services in ways most people can’t even imagine. You could start asking your councillors what is coming for your services. I don’t think you will like what you hear. You could also ask what the other parties are doing, we don’t see much evidence of their activity – oh except for one councillor who supported the council staff, in public and is soon to retire. Shady.
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So rather than waffling, what are these radical changes. Facts please!
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Transfer to the private sector and provision of bare minimum services. More dosh for the outsourcing fat cats a Capita et al!
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Ask your councillor.
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sorry but due to the attitude of some of the shirehall people and general rudeness of the phone and such i have absolutely no sympathy with them at all, they dont listen, they think they are the boss and theyre not we are the boss we pay their wages
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they havent agreed YET…
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