Richard Baum

I attended a briefing for Councillors tonight on the Equal Pay / Job Evaluation issue. The presentation was given by the Director of HR and the Director of Strategic Finance, and they answered sa lot of questions on all sorts of topics for nearly two hours. Their time was appreciated by the many Labour and Lib Dem members who were there.

Sadly, the conservative Executive were notable for their absence. I know it’s the Tory conference this week, but I still think that it is an absolute disgrace that not a single Executive member was at tonight’s meeting. Not one of them stood by their officers, nor did any of them even sit in the audience to hear the vocal, emotional and quite justifiable concerns from opposition members from both Labour and the Lib Dems. The Leader has once again shown that his priorities are quite wrong. He has once again shown a lack of leadership and a disregard for his staff and the JE process that is so complete it almost borders on the callous. The Tories gathering in Birmingham today want to prepare for government. But at a local level the people running their Councils can’t even be bothered to come home to discuss the most important local issue of the day. It is simply disgraceful, and every one of the Executive should be ashamed.

The questions were thorough and numerous, but sadly the answers given did little to reassure me of the fairness of the process. The moderation element strikes me as particularly contentious. It was revealed that part-way through the process, nearly 40% of staff were looking like they’d lose money. After the final stage of moderation, this figure had come down to 28%, and whilst this is certainly good news for those no longer losing out. the subjectiveness of the moderation process that this indicates throws up major doubts for me about the robustness of the whole thing.

We were re-assured about cost-neutrality, and I don’t think for one minute that anyone has been purposefully down-graded or held back for malicious reasons. But the moderation process dealt in abstractions - bringing jobs back up or down towards similar roles rather than contemplating the real financial hardship that these decisions are causing the real people who hold those jobs.

Once again the opposition members were united in their calls for further work involving members from all sides to try and find the best solution. Unfortunately the Council’s hands are tied in having to implement a scheme. I think this is unjust in itself, but nowhere near as unjust as the results it is creating, where people have no alternative but to leave jobs they love because of crippling pay cuts.

We might not be able to get rid of every pay cut. We might not be able to end the overall injustice. But we can certainly work harder to make things better where we’re able. Unfortunately once again we are thwarted by an Executive not attending meetings, not answering questions, sending officers into the breach when they themselves swan off to the party conference. This lack of leadership will not be forgotten by a staff body who’s morale is already crushingly low. It makes me despair, but at least there is some hope that reason will prevail when opposition members continue to press hard for answers and progress.

At the end of the meeting, Labour Councillor Alan Matthews was taken ill in the Council chamber. I wish him well and a speedy recovery.

Rick