Letters / A mystery to me
Brian Smith sarcastically asks if messages have got lost in the post (Lost in the post; SN 4/11/12).
To refresh his memory of the council’s repeated invitations to the staff unions to discuss how to handle unavoidable budget cuts, here’s my understanding of what happened and when:
18 June 2012
At SIC leader Gary Robinson’s request, a council official emailed all interested parties, suggesting we set up a forum to engage with the unions, along the lines of the Single Status group. Everyone except Brian accepted the invitation.
20 July
Brian e-mailed to ask what had happened to what he described as the “Cuts Forum”. He was politely reminded that the council was waiting to hear from him. He responded that he intended to take Gary’s offer to his branch meeting on 26 July. The council appears to have heard no more from him about this until 13 August.
13 August
Brian asked again about progress. He was reminded that the council was still waiting for him to report back on the decision of his branch meeting. He confirmed that his members had agreed to participate. After consulting diaries, council officials then arranged the first meeting of the forum for 12th September.
6 September
Brian asked for an agenda item to be added.
12 September
Brian attended the forum, along with representatives of two other unions. At this meeting James Gray, the council’s head of finance, gave the same very detailed presentation on the financial position as he had earlier given to councillors in a seminar.
9 October
Brian was the only union representative present at the forum’s second meeting.
7 November
There are now two more meeting dates in the diary. Brian has been invited to both.
It’s a mystery to me, and no doubt to many others, exactly how this amounts to the unions being excluded from discussions, as repeatedly alleged.
If anyone was responsible for a delay of almost three months in starting talks, it certainly wasn’t the council.
I hope we can now hear Brian’s detailed proposals as soon as possible.
If the unions, with their detailed knowledge of council business, have workable budget alternatives that will minimise job losses while saving significant amounts of money, then of course councillors will want to consider them.
Jonathan Wills
Councillor
Lerwick South
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