Council Accused of Helping 'Hound' Union Rep Out of Job
Serco employee said parking revenue would be lost during strike
Ealing's three MPs join Serco employees protesting outside Ealing Town Hall. Picture: James Murray
Ealing Council have been accused of ‘actively helping’ Serco to get rid of a senior union rep from his role as a civil enforcement officer in the borough.
Unite the Union have said that the Labour administration was effectively supporting the ‘hounding’ of the employee by Serco who they claim are trying to undermine the union and force through a redundancy package without consultation.
The unions claims that an Ealing Council officer wrote to Serco to complain about the employee who had stated that the council would lose revenue from Penalty Charge Notices during the recent strike by civil enforcement officers. Unite says that the officer requested that the man, who has been in the job for over two decades, be removed from his role because he had brought the council into disrepute by conveying the council as ‘a purely revenue generating authority’.
The union disputes this and says that the statement made by its member was factually correct and made no reference to the motivation behind Ealing Council’s parking policy.
The same union rep had previously been offered severance by Serco along with several of his colleagues which the union believed was part of an attempt at union-busting by Serco. The recent industrial action was over this issue and the striking workers were joined on a picket line by the three local MPs, Virendra Sharma, Rupa Huq and James Murray.
Unite said it is ‘inconceivable’ that a Labour council would ‘unjustly intervene’ in a dispute over union-busting in favour of an outsourcer, especially when it is party policy to bring services back in-house.
Unite regional officer Clare Keogh said, “As the situation stands Ealing’s Labour-controlled council is actively helping Serco hound a union rep on strike for union-busting out of his job. An injury to one is an injury to all and the council should rest assured that Unite will use its full power to fight this injustice.
“It is inconceivable that a Labour council would use trumped up charges to unjustly intervene in favour of an outsourcing company doing its utmost to undermine trade union organisation. This is just days after all three Ealing MPs joined the picket line in support of Serco’s workers.
“The fact that this union rep can be so offhandedly culled from his position, after spending 20 years working on behalf of the council, is exactly why Labour stands against the pernicious impacts outsourcing has on jobs and services.
“Tonight, is the first council meeting under the new leadership of Peter Mason. Unite calls on every single Ealing councillor to speak out against this decision this evening and for Mr Mason and his cabinet to reverse it with immediate effect.
“Mr Mason also has the opportunity to prove that his ambitious plans for Ealing come to more than just lip service by sacking Serco and bringing the civil enforcement team under council control.”
A council spokesperson said, “Ensuring workers are treated fairly remains a commitment for the council. We are currently working to secure a resolution on this issue as a matter of priority and both the leader and newly-elected deputy leader of the council are meeting with Unite representatives today.”
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
May 21, 2021