Monday 12 September 2011

All in this together?

OK you've heard about the Bolsover Councillors awarding themselves the highest allowances of any District Council in the country but what about the pay of those who work for, rather than serve on, the authority? How do they fare?

And I'm not talking about the bosses and Directors who seem to be endlessly re-organised, I'm talking about the refuse collectors, craftspeople, office staff and housing assistants. Over 50 of them are paid less than the Living Wage of £7.20 per hour. That means that over 1 in 10 of the Council's staff get little more than the minimum wage. Apparently they are not "worth it".

Councils such as Green Party controlled Brighton along with forward thinking Labour authorities such as Lewsiham and most recently Preston (where I notice that the member allowance is nearly one third of the Bolsover rate) are doing something not just issuing platitudes so I've put down this question for the Leader to answer at the next Bolsover Council meeting. Let's see if whether he's more George Osborne than George Orwell.

"As his party has made sure that front-line councillors get the highest allowances of any District Council in the country would he like to show that he is equally concerned about front-line workers by joining the ranks of forward-thinking Councils such as Preston, Lewisham, Lambeth, Oxford and Brighton by making a commitment that Bolsover DC will become a Living Wage Employer thereby directly assisting the 50+ Council employees  who earn less than £7.20 per hour and who are suffering most from the coalitions cuts in services and increases in VAT and fuel costs?"