The new new chief ex

[Spinner72]

What this bunch needs is someone with drive and organisational skills, who can quote the rule book chapter and verse from end to end, and has an advanced degree in kidology and B/S to put the brakes on any troublemakers and make them work for a living.

 

Excactly. I completely agree, and an excellent analogy of previous CE's there too.

 

I guess what we have going for us is the new CE has a pre-built reputation, something which will make the general public much less likely to side against him should the media be used to critiscise him in the same way it has been with Clark.

 

Power tae his elboo!

[Kavi Ugl]

Sadly I think he'll come up against the left-wing machine that rules the SIC and which Morgan Goodlad couldn't even break.

 

I heard a snippet of Radio Shetland tonight and Hazel Sutherland was quoted as saying that the cuts in the coming year or two will basically be drastic with a figure of £17 million(?) mentioned. But as usual it will be he who shouts loudest(the UNISON mob) that will save their "waste of space and time" jobs and the poor who will be left to face the "take it or you'll loose your jobs" cuts.

 

I'd like to be proved wrong but history tells me otherwise.

[Kavi Ugl]

Sadly I think he'll come up against the left-wing machine that rules the SIC and which Morgan Goodlad couldn't even break.

 

I heard a snippet of Radio Shetland tonight and Hazel Sutherland was quoted as saying that the cuts in the coming year or two will basically be drastic with a figure of £17 million(?) mentioned. But as usual it will be he who shouts loudest(the UNISON mob) that will save their "waste of space and time" jobs and the poor who will be left to face the "take it or you'll loose your jobs" cuts.

 

I'd like to be proved wrong but history tells me otherwise.

 

And the councillors?. Well, they couldn't care less about their ordinary workers. In a word, useless.

[Guest Anonymous]

^^ in 2 words , yes exactly

[Ghostrider]

If cuts are required service levels and front line staff should be the last resort to look at, not the first line as more often than not seems to be the case.

 

Admin and Managerial work and staff, regardless union members or not, should be pared to the bone before front line staff and service levels are even considered for touching.

 

Yes, jobs will be lost, and that's unfortunate, but when cuts have to happen its inevitable. To my mind better folk receive the fullest possible service for as long as possible, than folk get a lesser service for the same money, or worse, pay more for a lesser service, while the same Admin and Managerial staff all retain their jobs and all get paid as much as before for doing less.

 

The council are supposedly there to deliver public services at value for money rates, they are not a charity to pay for un-necessary Admin and Managerial procedures just so x number of people can claim paypackets.

 

Get the dead wood out first, starting at the top. Clark has gone after drawing circa £75,000 for next to nothing, Shannon has drawn how much for the last 10 months? For doing not much more. How many more lesser Clarks and Shannons are loitering around council establishments?

[Brian]

Why don't you stand for the Council, Ghosty, and check out if your views find public support?

[Kavi Ugl]

Every member of the public I speak to loathes the bloated ranks of the SIC but whether you stand for council or not they've built up so many layers of "employment policy/protection" that it's literally impossible to get rid of any of them.

 

In other words no-one can touch them as both MG and DC discovered.

[Guest Anonymous]

Get the dead wood out first, starting at the top. Clark has gone after drawing circa £75,000 for next to nothing, Shannon has drawn how much for the last 10 months? For doing not much more. How many more lesser Clarks and Shannons are loitering around council establishments?

 

precisely , quietly clocking up the wages bill at an alarming rate and producing nothing but a fine warm seat

[JustMe]

Every member of the public I speak to loathes the bloated ranks of the SIC but whether you stand for council or not they've built up so many layers of "employment policy/protection" that it's literally impossible to get rid of any of them.

 

In other words no-one can touch them as both MG and DC discovered.

We can touch them!. At the next election we vote in new councillors with a mandate to trim the SIC of any dead wood from top to bottom. Which is where I have to sound a note of caution. What we must avoid at all costs is allowing the dead wood to stay while getting rid of sensible hard working council staff. It is simply not acceptable for any employee of the council to consider that they have a job for life. If they are not needed or if they are not doing their job properly then they must go and any agreements to the contrary must be torn up.

 

That said all employees should be treated with due consideration and, if their job has to go, they should be offered any suitable alternative position that is available or a redundancy package in line with their contract. Unless of course their performance is bad enough to constitute misconduct in which case they should simply be sacked.

[Guest Anonymous]

if their job has to go,

 

am quite sure even lower down in the paperwork brigade theres endless slacking and advanced apathy, which in turn forces up all the stealth taxes for all , chop mercilessly

[Brian]

The more people blather on about other people's alleged laziness and uselessness, the more ignorant I find they themselves tend to be.

[paulb]

if their job has to go,

 

am quite sure even lower down in the paperwork brigade theres endless slacking and advanced apathy, which in turn forces up all the stealth taxes for all , chop mercilessly

no it has to be done carefully we can't risk having hundreds being dump on the dole. so swapping to the private sector may be a better option. it would mean worse wages but the majority of jobs would still be there.

[JustMe]

paulb wrote

we can't risk having hundreds being dump on the dole

Oh yes we can. The function of the SIC is to provide services for the people of Shetland and not to act as some sort of job creation scheme. If it turns out to be, and I will stress that if, there are hundreds of council staff who are not needed then it is the duty of the council to get rid of the excess staff.

[Spinner72]

I think it's vital to remember that whilst we all know cuts are inevitable, from management down to frontline staff if/as necessary, none of these people come close to wasting the amount of money a certain few councillors have cost us in the recent past.

 

The public are already up in arms over the relatively small cuts such as instrument and knitting tuition - how does it look now it is in the public domain that one or two councillors obsessions with blethering everything to the media has cost us enough to keep both running another year, and potentially enough to keep them running much longer.

 

Removing these members from the chamber will without question save more money than any amount of service/employees ever will.

[owre-weel]

I used to work for the Council and it was obvious then, and still is today, that there is a lot of waste. Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, there needs to be a reduction in staff numbers, and this must start at the top. A senior employee of the Council near me, very rarely leaves for work before 9.30am and is often home for lunch early and then again home by 4pm. As a retired person, I would love to consider working these part time hours, no doubt for some £50K plus. It makes you wonder who is managing the managers !!!. When I worked for the Council, it wasn't unusual to work some 50 plus hours per week for the same salary as those working 34.

 

The last thing you want to see is people losing jobs, but we can't afford this level of staff. Lets hope that the new Chief Exec can quickly carry out an audit of staff and reduce numbers in an effective manner, protecting the front line staff and keeping a close eye on the managers who seem to continue to create new posts, rather than roll thier sleeves up an muck in like we had to do.

 

In our haste to complain and be critical, we should not forget that there is a large number of hard working and committed staff in the Council including managers. Lets hope, those in authority ensure these are retained.

 

There has also been much said about the inaffectivness of our councillors, and in lots of cases I have to agree. But lets not tar them all with the same brush. There are a few who work hard and try thier best for the community, under very difficult circumstances. I was dissappointed to see Rick Nickerson give up his chairmans position, but admire his stand on the subject of free music tuition. I cannot believe the shortsightedness of those who think this is a good way to save money. Surley this decission should have been included in the overall "schools review". Cherry picking small areas like this is not the answer. Come on you lot, GET A GRIP !