Branch Seretary Stephen Higgins has written to HR Director Graham White to reaffirm Westminster UNISONs belief that the City Council is treating its staff unfairly. The letter is reproduced below.
Dear Graham,
I find your position on this matter baffling, you say you are of the
belief that the City Councils current policies are "sufficiently
supportive of staff". This despite the fact that the Council is silent
on how adverse weather conditions should be managed both in terms of
service delivery and the care and safety of employees.
On the subject of how other public bodies are dealing with this Boris
Johnsons' Office has said "The Mayor has absolutely no intention of
penalising anyone who failed to get to work due to last week's
exceptional weather". Additionally Kensington and Chelsea have
'relaxed' their special leave policy to take into account the
extraordinary conditions.
The decision not to pay staff who were unable to make it into their
normal places of work because of something so clearly beyond their
control, is miserly and does absolutely nothing to forward the City Councils' aim
to appear as a so called excellent employer. Westminster City Council is
rapidly losing the good will of its' staff, goodwill that would stand
the Council in good stead given both the hard economic times ahead and
the proposed changes to internal structure.
In answer to your final sentence, your approach has not led to clarity
for staff at all. You have not taken into account the fact that some
staff were told to go home on the day nor the fact that some staff were
contacted and told not to attempt to make the journey. You have also
failed to account for those staff who could not work, (what use would
school crossing patrols have served on Monday 2nd with all the schools
closed?). Most importantly you have not taken into account the fact
that almost every media outlet was telling people not to travel unless
their journey was essential in order to ease the burden on emergency
services.
This matter is not resolved and is the subject of the formal disputes
procedure as lodged with Alastair Gilchrist.
Regards
Stephen Higgins
Branch Secretary
Westminster UNISON
The Council have now set a date of 3rd March for the hearing of stage one of this dispute.
