Opposing changes in my department
Mar 1 2007
Right well I've started a thread about the restructuring of my council here. That one is for the big issue of the whole restructuring.
This is just going to be about the small bit of restructuring of my team.
I'm doing this to get advice from others, and also to share my experiences and stuff I'm learning with other people.
So basically they deleted the post of one woman and tried to make 4 more of us take on her work. We spoke to each other and decided that we'd all refuse any extra duties. The union voted to withdraw goodwill and boycott vacant posts, but I'm the only one in the union of the 5 of us who goes to the meetings or anything, and this stuff hasn't been communicated well with everyone else.
BTW there is a complete ban on creating any new posts.
Anyway so we all refused extra work, then get told management have managed to wangle a new post. This was a pretty huge concession in itself. So we said why couldn't the woman who was deleted do that job? They said because she's a grade lower. But the policy is that people can be redeployed on lower grades with their pay protected. They are currently refusing this, but the woman doesn't want to work anywhere but our dept, cos she's been here since it started, been here over 30 years, and has been off sick with stress ever since she was deleted. It's incredibly fucking sad, and everyone is pretty pissed off by it.
Anyway I've been talking to people about the possibility of trying to get her this job with pay protected. A couple of us confronted management about it at a big meeting the other day, which was fucking great. Since then been talking to a couple of people about what we could do to pressure them into getting her the job. Someone's going to check that she'd want it, then we'll go from there I guess...
Mar 12 2007
#2
This sounds like great stuff, yeah let us know how it's gone. I was on practice placement in a council last year, I spoke to someone from it the other day and there having redundancies and that too. Doesn't sound like they're putting up as much of a fight as you lot though...
Mar 12 2007
#3
magnifico wrote:
This sounds like great stuff, yeah let us know how it's gone. I was on practice placement in a council last year, I spoke to someone from it the other day and there having redundancies and that too. Doesn't sound like they're putting up as much of a fight as you lot though...
Hmmm well I don't want to blow anything out of proportion or make stuff sound more militant than it is. That demo then the council meeting thing was only 200 then 100 people out of 10,000 workers and a borough of 250,000 odd.
Actually with this woman's deletion stuff has really stagnated, it's very disappointing (I did mean a grade higher above, yes). After the meeting when we confronted some management about it there was a real buzz with some of us, someone suggested leaving work to go to the pub (about 4) but it was kinda laughed off as a semi joke. We probably should have tried to get together and discuss stuff right away. Since then any feeling about it has pretty much dissipated into cynicism. Also the woman is still off sick so it's not like there's anything keeping it in the collective mind. I can't contact her; someone else said they'd ask if she would want that job so I could then try to go forwards from that, but it hasn't happened yet. The job is being allocated to someone else in the next couple of days too so maybe it's just too late... pretty depressing really.
After the initial meeting I was bearing this organise article in mind, but I didn't really feel able to act on it. I'm still quite young and new there which doesn't help. But from what happened I would totally echo the sentiment of that article. Namely if something like that happens elsewhere act on it straight away!
On a job-related note, they are succeeding in increasing our workloads. I've been told to just prioritise my new stuff, and they're trying to get the temps to pick up the old stuff. More job cuts are due in the next 6 months, so we'll see...
Mar 12 2007
#4
Hi Steven,
This is where you need someone clued up on the ins and outs of the situation inside your council. From what I remember from when I used to work in a local authority, there were all sorts of rules about people being assimilated into posts. You need to know what those rules are, particularly as it used to be the case (but it may only have been a local agreement where I worked, or might have been superseded by single status) that assimilation would be ring fenced to people affected by cuts. It sounds like they are planning to redeploy someone into your colleague's post on that basis, but your colleague has several grounds to challenge them if there is any sort of ring-fencing.
Where I've known this happen, the affected workers have had to apply for their own jobs, esp if they've been regraded, but crucially they have had the opportunity to do so first. It's not ideal but it has happened in the past.
A couple of questions - firstly, where are the union in all this? I know there's a lot going on, but this sort of individual case work is their bread and butter and it does sound like they need a kick up the arse. Second, do you think the refusing to cover the vacant post will happen when they seem to be "filling" it, albeit in a way that still messes up your colleague?
Our comrades in North London SolFed have more recent experience of local govt issues and may be able to help with some specifics. If you pm me your details I'll put you in touch,
regards,
Martin
Any news on this colleagues' fate then? And well done for seeking to protect her interests.