Forum Topic

Ealing Council on London Tonight ITV

I turned on ITV at 10.30pm tonight to get the end of a report about Ealing Council asking 2 staff to pack their belongings and leave immediately. Not sure what it was all about. Anyone know?

David Archer ● 6560d22 Comments

See 'House To Let' on this forum. Could be the £1.2 million/year housing benefit story discussed here.

Eric Alan Leach ● 6559d

It's 3 people - I think from an agency - who were "dispensed with' at the same time as the 'house to let' story broke.

Viv Ellis ● 6559d

How the hell were 'agency workers' given such responsibility, perhaps a councilor needs to do the honourable thing and resign as well.We, including me, voted this lot in with such high hopes, now everything seems to be turning into a shambles.

Peter Wright ● 6559d

Deafening silence from Cllr Stacey and Brooks on this and the Icelandic £2 million. So much for value for money - a very poor effort

Raymond Bradbury ● 6559d

One of the sacked employees, David Lewis, appeared in the broadcast. He pointed out that the previous week he had been interviewing people for the department because they needed extra help. Then on the day this story hits the press him and two of his colleagues were marched out of the building. Ealing are claiming that this was part of a pre-planned retrenchment. It is utterly obvious they are lying to us just as they did over the Icelandic bank issue.

Andy Jones ● 6559d

Silence is what Ealing is best at.  Have you ever tried making a complaint, no response.  If you complain to the Ombudsman, they slap their wrist, if you're lucky. It is sooooooooo depressing.

Maggie Dodge ● 6558d

Here is a version of the story from the BBC web site:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7669836.stmIt would be interesting to know from any one else who has been let go from Ealing Council recently whether having people stand over you and escort you out of the office is standard practice. I suspect it isn't.There seems to be two explanations for what happened. Either someone decided that if the blame could be shifted to contract workers then senior management and Councillors could wash their hands of the matter. Alternatively one of the 'Ealing Three' was suspected of going to the Sun with the original story.

Paul Cavanagh ● 6558d

"It would be interesting to know from any one else who has been let go from Ealing Council recently whether having people stand over you and escort you out of the office is standard practice. I suspect it isn't."I don't know whether it is standard practice or not, but in my experience of being made redundant 3 times, on 2 occasions I was given 1 hr to collect my belongings, and escorted from the building. The second time, exactly the same, the explanation given, was that some people react to the dismissal in a violent manner, and have been known to shred important documents or commit criminal damage. I believe that if it is a food industry environment, they are far more strict about access to personal belongings, for fear that you may sabotage or contaminate the  products!

Account suspended ● 6558d

It think that would be typical in the case of permanent employees but these were agency workers on short term contracts. This begs the question if they were handling sensitive information wouldn't that be a breach of the Data Protection Act which I believe stipulates that anyone handling protected data must be directly employed by the organisation.

Paul Cavanagh ● 6557d

What David Lewis told the press was that routinely Ealing Council had housed people at a cost of £50,000 per annum in 5 bedroom houses. This is way above market rents for the area. Does anybody know why they simply didn't contact local estate agents to see what they had on their books?

Andy Jones ● 6553d

"It would be interesting to know from any one else who has been let go from Ealing Council recently whether having people stand over you and escort you out of the office is standard practice. I suspect it isn't."You are wrong.It's very usual practice for employees to be asked to attend a meeting outside of the workplace where they are given the bad news. While they are meeting their manager, the employee's access to the building and computer systems will typically be revoked and their possessions boxed up for collection. This is not to say that this is nice practice as it's horrible for both the ex-employee and the person giving them the bad news. It does however minimise risk to other employees of violence, and reputational risk to the employer caused by customers witnessing outbursts e.g. shouting, banking doors etc.

Ed Yelland ● 6553d

According to Vlod Barchuk, Ealing Councillor "No-one from the Council has suggested they did anything wrong relating to this case; they were temporary staff who were no longer required following a re-organisation."  He seems to know the situation, surely they don't escort every temporary member of staff off the premises at the end of their engagement".

Maggie Dodge ● 6553d

According to Vlod Barchuk, Ealing Councillor "No-one from the Council has suggested they did anything wrong relating to this case; they were temporary staff who were no longer required following a re-organisation."  He seems to know the situation, surely they don't escort every temporary member of staff off the premises at the end of their engagement".

Maggie Dodge ● 6553d

"He seems to know the situation, surely they don't escort every temporary member of staff off the premises at the end of their engagement"."Temporary or permanent makes no difference IMO. I won't go over it again, but refer you to Ed Yellands earlier post, which in my experience of redundancy situations, and I suspect maybe his also, is exactly what happens. I didn't like it at the tome, but on reflection, it does make sense from the employers point of view.

Account suspended ● 6553d

I bow to your greater knowledge.

Maggie Dodge ● 6553d

It would appear from Jason Stacey's comments in the Council meeting last week that once again the initial story given out by Ealing Council was not correct as many here suspected. Very disappointing coming as it does on the back of the poor handling of sharing information with residents about Icelandic bank losses.

Andy Jones ● 6546d

Andy, I've lost track what is Mr Stacey saying now then.

Maggie Dodge ● 6546d

There is an item on the front page in which he is quoted as saying 'questions need to be asked' about the staff. His comments make it clear that the three were actually sacked and that they are being deemed in some way culpable for the renting of the home for £12,000 a month. As they are contract staff I doubt they can make any claim for unfair dismissal so they make a convenient scapegoat.

Paul Cavanagh ● 6544d

Another twist to this with a very interesting letter in this week's Gazette from a Mr Grist. He said that the assertion that the centrally set rates for Acton were the same as Westminster was not correct. The Council should have set a rent at about a quarter of the level they actually did. It looks increasingly like the most plausible explanation for what happened was that inexperienced contract staff made an error. The blame clearly shouldn't lie with them.

Andy Jones ● 6533d

Is the rent to be revised? Or has it been revised?

Alan Brainsby ● 6533d

Upwards or downwards?

Paul Cavanagh ● 6529d

Will there be a tenancy agreement in place, that is binding, at least until the end of its term?

Maggie Dodge ● 6529d