An Irony Deficit at the Heart of the Council

This is one of those feel-good letters. Mayor Fiaz and her 41 fellow travellers can parade their socialist credentials in front of their comrades for absolutely no cost. They can poke their sanctimonious noses into the industrial relations of a private sector employer in the borough.

This is not the only time Fiaz has felt the need to interfere in the industrial relations of an independent employer in Newham. She has also tried to interfere in the restructuring of the University of East London. The letter is available on the Newham website. In it, Fiaz together with councillors Ruiz and Dasgupta prattle on about how awful UEL is in making staff redundant, when they only have to save £30m to remain solvent.

But when it comes to industrial relations in the council, they are all strangely silent.

When we look at what is happening under their noses, we are inclined, if we feel charitable, to suggest that this is somewhat ironic. If we were feeling uncharitable, we’d be very sure that this was rank hypocrisy. 

On a serious note, there are allegations of bullying and fabricating evidence. Members of staff have been suspended for over a year at a cost that exceeds £150,000. Again, this is money spent for absolutely nothing in return. On top of that we estimate that a similar sum has been spent on agency staff to cover the work of the suspended workers.

The cash strapped council can spend well over a quarter of a million pounds for no additional benefit. You’d think that they had money to burn.

We are not in a position to pass judgement on the allegations, because we haven’t seen the evidence. What we can say is that suspending staff for close to a year and a half pending investigations smacks of a management that is unable to do its job and a political oversight that is non-existent. 

It is proper that staff should receive pay when they are on suspension. The suspension should not denote anything other than an allegation is being investigated. It is unfair on the suspended staff members that they should be kept hanging on, not knowing what the future holds for them. Justice delayed is justice denied. 

The Recorder reported that six men are now suspended and another has quit following 15 months on suspension.

It is scandalous that this should take so long or cost so much.

The campaign seems to be run by some of the Mayor’s former Momentum comrades who have fallen out with her. 

“Newham Trades Council are calling for support for Queens Market Traders and Newham Refuse Workers who have joined forces to fight:’the failure of the Council management to deal with their complaints of bullying, victimisation and racial/trade union discrimination’ by their management. 

Please attend if you can, the virtual public meeting on the 9th of December, to hear their case. There is also a petition for you to sign.”

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/.../newhams-refuse-workers...

“Over the summer Newhams' Mayor & Councillors received letters signed by over 50 Refuse Workers and 67 Queens Market Traders, regarding the failure of the Council management to deal with their complaints of bullying, victimisation and racial/trade union discrimination by the Management of the Recycling, Refuse and Street Cleansing, Environment & Sustainable Transport Department.”

What needs to be done. (A bit Leninist, eh?)

• The suspended workers have the reasonable expectation that their grievances are heard and addressed. 

• The disciplinary action should be swiftly brought to a conclusion.

• The Mayor and Councillors should stop writing bloody stupid letters to other organisations and get their own house in order.