Walsall Council set to axe extra days off
Tuesday 29th June 2010, 11:30AM BST.
Bank Holiday Tuesdays face being axed from a Black Country council, it was revealed today.
More than 8,000 council workers in Walsall are poised to have three extra holiday days taken away. Town hall chiefs are being threatened with industrial action after unveiling the plan.
The decision to scrap the ‘Bank Holiday Tuesdays’ is part of a shake-up of pay.
Walsall is the last council in the region to still allow three concessionary days, taken on the Tuesdays following the Bank Holidays in May and August. Some councils in the region still have an extra day after Easter.
And it comes after the Express & Star revealed last week that the authority was proposing to cut the pay of 29 per cent of council staff through the review – known as single status.
Designed to ensure equal pay for workers of similar skill levels and prevent the hundreds of salary disputes that have plagued councils for years, negotiations over the review are ongoing.
But Tony Jones, UNISON Regional Officer, said the unions were outraged that the council was not offering any recompense for the removal of the days-off. “Although there are no plans to strike at the moment, if the council is unwilling to look again at this proposal then we will ballot members for industrial action,” he said.
But Walsall’s cabinet member for finance, Councillor Chris Towe, said he was determined to get rid of the concessionary days. “Everyone else is back at work, so why shouldn’t the council be?,” he said.
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Once again let’s all bash the public sector workers.
Why oh why don’t people realise that on the whole they earn less than their friends in the private sector.
We would be lost without the public workers, so give them some credit.
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You really believe that….In doubt many people in the Public Sector are on minimum wage. I also doubt that 90% of the private sector get access to super duper pensions, flexi time, additional holidays.
I never heard much support from the Public sector for the private sector as we hit the recession a couple of years back.
I’m all right jack attitudes cost and for the first time this bloated sector of the country is (it appears), going to start to pay.
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Actually yes the private sector is better paid than the public sector, check a job description that is comparable to the private sector I think you’ll find quite a difference in pay AND benefits such as access to company cars and BUPA!
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Besides sales reps and execs, can’t recall seeing any adverts in private sector for company cars.
Certainly not seen any with BUPA as a benefit.
Plus we tend to have to pay a lot more into a pension – few non-public employers operate a final salary scheme.
Quite common for those employees on minimum wage in the private sector to have to fund 100% of pension payments themselves.
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well, when you find such a job description, my advice to you is “Go For It !!”
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Ha ha ha, sorry but you dont look very far do you? The last two companies I’ve worked for offered and gave me both a company car, BUPA, bonuses as standard oh and life insurance and dental care for a minimal monthly fee. Try opening your eyes and look further than the express and star job adverts!
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If the councils did their job properly and didn’t waste taxpayers money you might get more respect.
Instead, you waste money on committees, take ages to do anything and impose ridiculous time wasting and money wasting schemes on people.
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I’m pretty sure that when I lost my Tuesdays after a bank holiday we had our annual leave increased.
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These people work for me and i say no to cushy extra holidays.
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No public sector workers work for the government, sick and tired of hearing that they work for the general public when the tax isn’t used on salaries.
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Then where do you think public sector salaries come from? The tooth fairy?
Private sector we pay for salaries as part of cost of goods and services. We all pay taxes of one kind or another – government spending also includes money to councils.
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Public Sector workers pay taxes also.
I love the way all of you think of public sector workers as just council workers. I don’t hear all this aimed at the police, ambulance staff, fire fighters etc who if you check on your council tax bill are included in the break down.
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Yes, public sector pays taxes too. A portion of what is needed to pay for public sector staff. And yes public sector includes more than council workers. Doesn’t mean much in relation to this story, this one is about council workers at one council.
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Lets Get something straight. Every sector of society from the private,public,retail,building,Car and Transport industry is funded by all of us. Taxes pay for the public sector and we all pay to keep the private sector.
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Do they earn less? Looks like many earn more.
So with the 3 extra days, how much holiday do they have considering the minimum for everyone is 28 days a year?
Come to think of it, perhaps a deal could be offered. Lose the 3 days or lose some additional staff.
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Just to clarify, the minimum leave entitlement for everyone is not 28 days. It is dependent on your salary and length of continuous service with the council.
According to Walsall Council’s own website the highest paid member of staff gets 25 days leave whilst those on the lowest grade get 21. This only increases (to 30 days and 26 days respectively) after 5 years continuous service.
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No, the statutory minimum for all employees is 28 days. Minimum. Not negotiable.
Is the council giving 21 days plus the 8 bank holidays? Thats 29 days total – above the minimum.
Until a couple of years back there was no requirement to give bank holidays – so minimum was 20 days leave. Now there is a requirement, hence the minimum of 28 days.
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Yes Phil, I also had my annual leave increased when I lost my Tuesday after bank holiday. I find it much better as I can pick and choose when to take days off, rather than be told to have a bank holiday Tuesday, along with schoolkids usually!!
Unison should stop whingeing and look at the facts. You can still use your extra days to take the Tuesdays off if you really want to…but I bet you don’t.
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At last! This has always struck me as very odd. The public sector is just starting to catch up with the erosion in terms and conditions that we have had to put up with in the private sector for years.
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Not everyone within the Council gets 28 days. You have to be on Scale 4 and above to get 28 days leave.
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5 – we don’t know the facts. Is the Council proposing to make the three days discretionary as to when staff can take them, or is it proposing to simply remove them altogether? The article doesn’t make it clear, but Cllr Towe’s quote seems to suggest that he wants to remove them altogether, which amounts to a pay cut as staff are being asked to work more for the same pay.
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If they are being asked to work more for the same pay it is not that much difference from those of us who have been asked to work the same for less pay – with request being phrased in such a way as to mean that the operation closes if you say no. Welcome to the real world.
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Yes, about 1.5% extra productivity by not having those days.
Hey, we don’t need quite so many staff at the council then.
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I have worked in both the private sector and the public sector and in my experience the pay is significantly higher in the private sector for your average worker. My understanding was that the additional days off were given at a time when the Council’s couldn’t afford pay increases. I could be wrong though.
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There are a lot of jobs in the private sector that are minimum wage. Not so many in the council as I recall if my reading of their job adverts is accurate.
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Actually if you check the job shop you’ll find there are plenty of minimum wage jobs available at the council. I am no better paid working for the council than I was working for the private sector, I see the “extra” days off as a perk and if we have to lose them than so be it. I left the private sector where I had 28 days paid leave a year, now I get 21 days paid leave. The only benefit i get from working for the council is that I am able to walk to work rather than having to sit in traffic every morning.
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The final salary pension scheme may be worth a bob or two. Yes, it is contributory but if you look at the deficit in the fund is those who don’t work for the council that will pick up the bill.
Oh, the sitting around whilst a committee decides what to do must also be good.
What about the non-accountability due to poor operation of performance management? That has to be worth something.
And, if the bills exceed the income just put up the tax. The mugs will pay (and if they don’t we have the option of jailing them) seems a somewhat more secure system than hoping that real customers will pay increased prices.
So, on balance, the walk to work is the only benefit. Shame.
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I worked in both sectors. I took a pay drop to work in the public sector many years ago just to get away from the slave task masters of the private sector. Ok they have to make a profit But!! most managers and business men milk you for what you are worth. They tend to reap only. The public sector treats you like a human and not a whipping boy. IT’s true the public sector has good pensions but also true that the private sector pays more bonuses out and also gives away company cars. Take a look at the bankers!! Take a look at your utility companies!! All share holders reaping money off us all. Yet you all moan about the public sector worker??? It’s the private sector that rips people off far more. So its swings and round abouts really.
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I’ve also worked in both sectors. Overall I earnt more in public sector until I got a skilled job.
Had bonuses in the public sector too – and certainly for the past couple of years the private sector has had to knuckle down and deal with the recession. Including cutting salaries, cutting perks, getting rid of staff. Public sector can now catch up.
Including 1.5% more working days a year if they get rid of these extra 3 days. More productivity, less staff needed, lower budgets for services needed and so on.
But no decrease in council tax.
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I would doubt you get the bonuses in the public sector the private sector got.Everyone seems to go quiet when the share holding companies and bankers are mentioned though. Funny old world.
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Bonuses depend on the company.
Share holding companies are very nice when you have shares in them. Like pension schemes tend to do – and like amny small investors do too.
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I once attended my GP over a minor injury. He advised me to go to A&E if the pain did not ease after three days. This happened to fall on a Tuesday after a Bank Holiday. The doctor I eventually saw there complained that they were short staffed and I should have waited until after the Bank Holiday to attend. I pointed out that I had sought medical advice and had taken it, also this was not a Bank Holiday, to which he replied, “It is in hospitals”.
I told him not to blame me if they had decided to give themselves an extra day off and couldn’t cope. A full and frank exchange of views followed.
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Walsall Council have run this town into the ground and have rendered themselves redundant.
Walsall’s regeneration has resulted in the loss of our cinema, arts centre, town hall, annual festivals,illuminations, Shannon’s Mill, canal museum and lock museum. Worst of all, through a lack of strategic planning, Walsall has lost its potential and it would take a couple of generations to get back to where we were – even with the best will in the world.
Our town centre shopping centres full of empty units, the historic High Street and Church Hill have been decimated by fires and inappropriate development and where there were thriving streets full of shops, pubs and people we now have bland ‘town centre apartments’ that Wolverhampton Council wouldn’t put in Wednesfield.
We have been downsized and degraded,we do not even have boundary signs welcoming people to our town – no pride, no passion, no vision, no future.
We can save money by ditching all office based regeneration and leisure staff giving them the opportunity to work instead in their beloved Birmingham. Good riddance.
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Perhaps if Walsall council addressed the massive absenteeism issues (average of 12 days per employee ?)and got rid of the shirkers the number of “true” employees could be better rewarded and maybe our council tax would be reduced,rather than having to fund the sick days and temporary staff to cover them ?
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For a couple of decades I’ve been hearing about how public sector has a much higher sickness rate than anyone else. Yet never hear much about how this is to be reduced.
I’ve noticed that employers who don’t pay more than statutory sick pay seem to have lower sickness rates than employers who give full pay for months or years…..
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Lets get some reality into this conversation.
I could move jobs out of the public sector tomorrow and get double the cash basic, the access to bonus schemes which would double it again if I perform to the same level as I do now. Oh and a lot of oother privileges plus access to training and the ability to move upwards in the organisation.
However working in the public sector I sit and see inadequate corporate leadership, political leaders who make decisions based on very little information and rather on their whims or based on one source of biased information.
These changes here amount to a cut in wage, and workers who presumably don’t know what they are going to earn next year, what their pension rights are, and indeed whther they have a job. They are probably, in my experience, scared to put forward any suggestions for being marked out as trouble.
Yes these things happen in the private sector, but shouldn’t the public sector provide an example to the private sector?
Yes there is waste, yes there are those who are incompetent or swing the lead. But the measures often mentioned do not address these issues.
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Workers who don’t know what they are going to earn next year, pension rights or even if they will have a job.
Hey, they can be welcomed to the real world.
No idea why you think the public sector should provide an example to the private sector. And definately not Walsall Council, not with the sickness rate they have…..
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Why is there all this constant bickering about public and private sector work forces? I worked in both sectors and not once when I was in the private sector did I moan about public sector workers. If you feel the public sector is better for you then get a job with them and vice versa. Such a lot of envy around these days.
Yes public sector workers do seem to be better treated than some private sector workers.But thats because they are treated like humans and not profit making machines. The private sector does very well when things are going good and the public sector very rarely changes. The utility companies and banks and insurance companies and even retail sales selling on commission all have the opporurtunity to make more money. Public sector workers dont. So stop bleating on about pensions and over employment. The private sector is the rip off sector of our country as has been proven with this reccession.
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Martin, I am well aware of the real world. And indeed you are right that the present state of affairs may come as a shock to some of those that it effects. Does that make it right though?
The fact is cuts are coming, but the service that you (or society in general)receives will go down and the cost you pay is going to go up.
Yes the situation has to be addressed, but there are other failings in other areas that will no doubt go overlooked whilst those who do work hard will be hit hardest.
I am summising here, but anyone who thinks that the private sector are paragons of efficiency is making as wide a generalisation as anyone who thinks the public sector is just full of people taking advantage of this poor management.
The public sector should set an example, appointments should be made on the basis of merit, awards should be made to reward good work, investment should be made in people and promises should be kept…or do you disagree on this?
The fact is I can move into the private sector and improve my situation, I however like to feel I am making a contribution, and I am sure there are others that feel the same. Any gleeful soundbite on your behalf makes you sound petty and jealous. Exactly the kind of person I am glad isn’t working on my behalf or that of the people of whatever borough you live in.
I want the best in a community working for that community. That’s how we will receive improved, cost effective services.
Turning round and sayiong, my lot is rubbish therefore everyone elses should be doesn’t really help anyone does it?
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Knowing Walsall Council, I’m sure there will be a few sickies to compensate for losing that random Tuesday holiday.
How I do like to generalise :)
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Having worked for Walsall Council some years ago and seen employees claim overtime for sitting and playing games on their PCs and taking all Friday afternoon to work out their flexi time for their next day off of long lunch break, I am wondering why they have to have more Bank Holidays off that the rest of us are entitled to. Is their work so much more stressful? I think not.
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I work in a school as a(underpaid)Teaching Assistant. We have never had an extra day off after bank holiday Monday. I.m also very worried abount what is happening next year with this Single Status.
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