Saturday 15 August 2015

Don't Blame the Council fall out continues

It has been reported in the Wigan Evening Post that a member of staff has been sacked at the Council over the Don't Blame the Council TV Programme. (http://www.wigantoday.net/news/local/don-t-blame-the-council-sacking-identity-revealed-1-7409926)

It seems that his boss, is still suspended and another member of staff, the head of PR, has been suspended too. The Chief Executive has said that the focus is now on how the council got portrayed in this way. Number of issues with that, which I will come to in a bit.

We all will remember the howler where the staff member said that he finished his job then went home and then came back to clock off to his manager - who did little but say let's draw line in it. So many people have said why wasn't that member of staff sacked and then the manager who let him off sacked too? Well I have heard why on the street. The problem was that the member of staff, along with others, had a contract that said it was job and finished. These were quite common years ago but have slowly been changed over the years - just obviously not with the Council. But when the new dept was opened that site had it's own policy where people that worked on site had to clock off on time. So in theory the staff had their contracts that said job and finish - which they did but then this other contract for the site they worked at saying they had to clock off on time. So what that member of staff did wasn't technically wrong and that's why he couldn't be sacked. Shocking if true!

Back to the comments that the leader of the Council and Chief Executive are carrying out an investigation. Thing for me they shouldn't - it should be someone independent because I do not believe for one moment that they did not know about the programme and I hear too that it was one of them that signed the contract for this programme. So they are implicated too and now they are carrying out the job of trying to blame someone. Their behaviour and involvement should be looked at too.

But the fact they are investigating how the council was filmed in this way is wrong for me - the question is how has the council been left to become run in this way? Because we all saw it so it is being run in this way.

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