UNION leaders at Warrington have accused the borough council of planning to abandon provision of decent public services and using volunteers as a cut-price alternative.
The plan is all about saving money and will cost jobs and lead to service cuts, according to the Town Hall unions UNISON and GMB.
In a joint statement, the unions say: “At a time when we are committed to avoiding and mitigating redundancies across the council it is not acceptable to be implementing a ‘Big Society’ Coalition pledge which undermines our members, conflicts with employee liability, Criminal Records Bureau checks and Health and Safety.”
The unions’ anger has been aroused by an advert on the council website for volunteers for positions at the Parr Hall and Pyramid – a move which they see as “the thin end of the wedge.”
The statement adds: “The council is simply washing its hands of providing decent public services and using volunteers as a cut-price alternative.
“We shouldn’t have volunteers taking over the services provided by Warrington Borough Council – and where are all these people with time on their hands, going to come from?
“Are we going to pay an army of newly unemployed to help run services? The council have reduced their workforce and will no doubt continue to do so and plan to bring in volunteers to bolster up the shortfall of staff.
“Public services must be based on the certainty that they are there when you need them, not when a volunteer can be found to help you.
“The use of volunteers is to fill the gaps that are left after the council have made redundancies due to the cuts they are making.”
Warrington-Worldwide reported the call for volunteers on August 1. Deadline for applying is Thursday, August 18.
Pyramid and Parr Hall say volunteers will be able to earn points to see their favourite shows and will also receive great training and development opportunities and be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses.
Unison and JMB say in their statement: “Instead of paying people to do a job that is valued by the residents of Warrington, elected members now intend to reward people with points, thus reducing paid employment in Warrington Borough Council, who should be demonstrating their commitment to creating paid employment as the biggest employer in the town.”
Joe Blott, the borough council’s executive director of neighbourhood and community services,l said: “Contrary to the statement made by the trade unions, we are not replacing staff through the use of volunteers, indeed it is quite the opposite. The Pyramid and Parr Hall is regularly contacted by local residents, especially young people, who are considering studying or pursuing a career in the entertainment industries, seeking voluntary opportunities and work placements as a means of gaining valuable work experience.
“Volunteers regularly work alongside our events team and make an important contribution but they cannot and will not replace paid, qualified staff. This practice has long been commonplace for many of our cultural activities and we are delighted with the local response so far with over 20 expressions of interest received from residents wishing to help out with future cultural events in Warrington.”
UNION leaders at Warrington have accused the borough council of planning
to abandon provision of decent public services and using volunteers as a
cut-price alternative.
Union anger over council call for volunteers
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Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
10 Comments
It’s taken the Unions long enough to wake up!!! That is the whole concept of the Big Society.
Just another paper chase, similar to the Neighbourhood project. Volunteers are fed up with the poor treatment and lack of support from the council, and the volunteers of yesterday, have lost their enthusiasm and found other things to do. Given the disarray that the council has been in this last few years, the lack of volunteers will only get worse. This situation goes back to when the previous Labour council started closing community buildings to save money, and the last lot carried on by stopping various community activities to save money. They could save a lot more if they looked in house at the waste and costs of supplies.
This looks like a non-story, as it is well known that volunteering in the arts is a good wa yof building up your experience on your CV and helps you to get on. If there are no jobs being lost, then it looks like the Union scattergun has got it wrong again
When I see articles like this I despair at what Union reps are doing in the so called name of its members. Given that there are fewer and fewer summer jobs for young people like my son I would love him instead to at least get a volunteer placement and gain an insight into into his chosen career before forking out £30k on tuition fees for a university course he may not end up enjoying.
I despair at how selling cornetto’s and showing people to their seats could help someone gain a degree, but thats not really the point is it! Having recently become a victim of redundancy it concerns me that if there is an opportunity for volunteers surley there is an opportunity to create real jobs and paid employment for people of the town – protecting jobs and helping to create jobs is something the unions should be doing, so well said comrades!!
Pray do tell… given that the ConDem coalition has slashed WBC’s income how do they create these extra paid jobs? I also think it is a bit disingenuous to assume that the volunteers will be selling cornettos (by the way you have mis-used the apostrophe….WBC should be focussing its reduced income on delivering good statutory services i.e. decent literacy lessons in schools!!! And, why are the Unions raising this issue now??? According to the article WBC have always offered work placements. ACTUALLY… Unison uses volunteers themselves….http://www.unison.org.uk/welfare/volunteer_faqs.asp …is this a case of Pot, Kettle and Black?
Maybe if 14 senior executives weren’t on six figure salaries and the Chief Exec alone didn’t get ten per cent pay rises year on year while laying people off they could find a few quid to spare some jobs.
The jobs are already there hence the advert for applications which originally included reference to Person spec job description and expected shift pattern commitment but has since been deleted following the Trade Union challenge.
WBC should not waste time effort and money advertising for positions if as they respond regular requests from local residents are received.
Anyone interested in a career in Art/Entertainment would gain nothing from the expectation of WBC as confirmed in the original advert.
The difference between responses is that the Trade Unions are informed of fact not ignorant of them.
Helen you are missing the point. WBC have employed people to carry out this work, surely using volunteers will mean that these staff will now get fewer shifts. Yes WBC offer work placements, but volunteers should only be used to offer extra services, not to replace paid staff. It’s only right that a union fights for its members interests.
I take your point about your son. Could I suggest that he contacts the Volunteer Centre and offers his time. Surely helping a local charity is better than taking other people’s jobs. Don’t be fooled, this is what will happen.
I believe that venues such as the Lowry do use volunteers, they are not the local council, who we pay to deliver our services. this is completely different.
Maybe if the new labour adminstration were prepared to listen to the Trade Unions proposals for review and restructure of the Senior management Board we would have more than a few quid to spare jobs.
DISGUSTING… I’ve just seen the news about local people in Manchester, London, etc coming out today and volunteering to help clean up the streets after last night’s riots!!! Don’t these do-gooders realise they are doing hard working Union members out of a job!! How dare people care so much that they want to give something back to the community. Stand up comrades… before you know it, you’ll have volunteers working for charities!!