Union's 'alarm' over hub jobs plan

12:00pm Saturday 27th October 2012 in News By Tom Edwards

UNION chiefs have warned their bosses they will resist any attempts to privatise the jobs of Worcestershire call centre workers.

Steve Brown, of the county’s Unison branch, said he was “alarmed” at proposals which could see a shake-up of the Worcestershire Hub.

As your Worcester News revealed last week, Wychavon District Council is looking to privatise its revenues and benefits shared service department.

The service deals with face-to-face queries at its base in the civic centre, but telephone calls are answered by staff at the hub’s call centre in Perry Wood Walk, Worcester.

Talks are due to start with private operators over the shake-up, with council chiefs saying they want to keep the jobs in Worcestershire.

Mr Brown said: “Nobody has spoken to us about the discussions yet, but we would hope for some dialogue soon.

“The people who work at the hub are our members. If they are merged with the revenues and benefits staff or sent to a private company we would have to be consulted.

“We have been alarmed at what is being said. We’ve heard people saying the jobs are safe, but in our experience when services are handed over to private operators that is not always the end result. We don’t want it.”

About 50 staff work at the hub’s call centre, which handles queries from the public on everything from potholes to council tax.

Wychavon District Council employs 95 workers at the revenues and benefits shared service operation.

Vic Allison, deputy managing director, has said that one option would be to create a ‘centre of excellence’ at the council’s civic centre.

That could potentially mean staff at the call centre transferring, resulting in a beefed-up department run privately.

He said he is likely to insist any private company does not take any of the jobs out of the county.

The main reason for the change is because the Government is simplifying Universal Credit next year, which means lots of existing work done by revenues and benefits staff will go back to the Department for Work and Pensions.

Comments(21)

uptonX says...
12:29pm Sat 27 Oct 12

What is the point of the unions ? All they seem to do is stop important change happening. As is said in the last paragraph above the work is going so it makes sense some of the jobs need to go to save council tax payers money, only an idiot would think otherwise.

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Guy66 says...
1:21pm Sat 27 Oct 12

The point is to keep the Union management in place so they can pay themselves massive salaries while 'defending' worker rights'.Oh and take their freinds to all expenses paid conferences in 5* hotels. All the while the 'down trodden' worker is being exploited from both ends....

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Jabbadad says...
2:41pm Sat 27 Oct 12

The very fact that parts of the new Universal Credits scheme is going to result in thousands of young people and other vulnerable people being thrown out onto the streets for rent arrears caused by the stupid Tory Scheme of no longer making rent payments direct to social landlords. Perhaps this is the Tory answer to ease the housing crisis in this country and much easier than controlling illegal migration. And the Unions are there to prevent thousands of people losing their jobs when their are no jobs to replace them.

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stu2010 says...
4:33pm Sat 27 Oct 12

The workers wouldn't get on in the private sector anyway. They prefer to hide in the public tax payers system

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lnm2000 says...
5:05pm Sat 27 Oct 12

Uptonx you would'nt feel like this if it was your job at risk-alright if it happens to someone else though is it?
And stu2010 you don't know anything about the staff that work there, who they are and their experience or skills, so your ridiculous and insulting comment means nothing. I know several people who work at the hub, they are honest, hardworking and good at their jobs. No one deserves to have the stress of redundancy looming over them and idiots like you who think they have the right to make judgement on people they have never met.

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brooksider says...
5:49pm Sat 27 Oct 12

Forget about the union bashing and think about the logical outcome of outsourcing.

To make a profit, an outsourcing company will have to cut costs and the quality of service will be reduced.

Remember the Council have already outsourced the Library to Capita and increased the purchase cost of each book, this is also the company who wanted to divert Birmingham Council calls to India.

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uptonX says...
5:54pm Sat 27 Oct 12

Classic stupid "living in another world" comment from Inm2000

Wake up. The world has changed. All of us that work in the real world (that is the private sector) have "the stress of redundancy looming over us" we handle it by working hard for our organisations and giving our customers good service, something sadly lacking in the public sector and seemingly completely absent at Worcester council.
If the council were in the private sector where "customers" had a choice the customers would go elsewhere.

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onelifeliveit says...
7:08pm Sat 27 Oct 12

uptonX wrote:
What is the point of the unions ? All they seem to do is stop important change happening. As is said in the last paragraph above the work is going so it makes sense some of the jobs need to go to save council tax payers money, only an idiot would think otherwise.
Agree Upton X.In the real world if the work goes the job goes.It is that simple.The unions are just getting worried as the fewer public sector workers there are the fewer subs they get .Less money less union staff. Life is tough at the moment but as I am not paying my tax for people to sit in an office with nothing to do.As for their being no jobs that is not true.There is a lot of care work around,just because people don t want to do this work(and i know how hard it is) is not an excuse for paying public sector workers to sit and twiddle their thumbs.

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The Doosra says...
8:05pm Sat 27 Oct 12

uptonX wrote:
Classic stupid "living in another world" comment from Inm2000

Wake up. The world has changed. All of us that work in the real world (that is the private sector) have "the stress of redundancy looming over us" we handle it by working hard for our organisations and giving our customers good service, something sadly lacking in the public sector and seemingly completely absent at Worcester council.
If the council were in the private sector where "customers" had a choice the customers would go elsewhere.
What a dozy comment - anyone who works lives in the real world - we all have bills to pay whether we work in the public or private sector.

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lnm2000 says...
8:32am Sun 28 Oct 12

I have worked all my life and have bills to pay the same as private sector workers. I work for the local government, I work hard and deliver good customer service. If working in the public sector means I don't have to work alongside arrogant misguided fools like you then I am glad to 'not live in the real world'

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broadwas says...
1:36pm Sun 28 Oct 12

Get rid of the hub completely - it doesn't work! Publish the direct line numbers and emails of all heads of department and make them respond within a reasonable time or delegate it to someone who will. Director of Communications to police this. We taxpayers pay their salaries - they must be contactable and accountable.

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M@lvernite says...
5:22pm Sun 28 Oct 12

The article didn't actually say there would be redundancies, just that the jobs might be moved to the private sector; according to most public sector workers their work and remuneration is no better than that in the private sector anyway.
These workers have to come from somewhere, and if the current public sector workers are doing a good job it would make sense to keep them on.
This may be a good opportunity to get rid of under-performing staff, which is something that regularly happens in the private sector anyway - no organisation or customer should have to put up with bad staff just because they have bills to pay and a union kicking up a stink.

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mayall8808 says...
8:04pm Sun 28 Oct 12

I have worked in Public and Private sectors, you can put the private where the sun don't shine as it is for profit and generally poor, also there are no more better workers in the private than the public, in fact i deal with the public sector and it is far superior in every way so stop bashing the council worker, most the ones the comments on unions well get a life, or you can go back to the days when you were sent up the chimneys when you were 10, that was stopped and need i go on,? i have seen both sides from my work experience and you need a union.

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Mary79 says...
11:57am Mon 29 Oct 12

well said mayall8808. and uptonx its seems to me that youre the idiot. sorry must go now to dop my cap to the bosses and get one of those onelifeliveit private sector care jobs which pay minimum wage and treat you like cr*p. which is why noone wants them and care standards are so poor leading to client abuse issues. yes i know because i have been there and had to report one of these 'real world' private sector employers to the care commission. thats the reality but so long as we can all be brainwashed into 'public bad' and 'private good' to keep the council tax down thats fine. workers should be standing up for themselves not accepting their lot and any old cr*p thrown at them.

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M@lvernite says...
5:45pm Mon 29 Oct 12

There's no need to go back to the days when children were sent up chimneys, but it might be nice to go back to the days when coal was mined and cars manufactured in Britain, before the greedy union bosses ended it by telling the workers they could have it all.
Any business will be more profitable when the workers knuckle down and get on with it instead of moaning about everything and going on strike.

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Mary79 says...
11:47am Wed 31 Oct 12

let me get this right malvernlite. you think all the ills of the world are caused by the workers. not actually the bosses exploiting the workers and the issues that causes. exploitation causes conflict. the fact is bosses will send jobs wherever it is cheaper and where they can best exploit workers. wake up call - thats why its all in east europe or the far east. once those workers realise whats going on they too will resist and on and on it goes moving money and jobs around the world until there is noone left to exploit and capitalism eats itself or starts to respect those who actually do the work for it and we create a more equal society. but hey malvernlite you carry on running with the brianwashing if you want as its entertaining.

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M@lvernite says...
9:28pm Wed 31 Oct 12

Mary79 wrote:
let me get this right malvernlite. you think all the ills of the world are caused by the workers. not actually the bosses exploiting the workers and the issues that causes. exploitation causes conflict. the fact is bosses will send jobs wherever it is cheaper and where they can best exploit workers. wake up call - thats why its all in east europe or the far east. once those workers realise whats going on they too will resist and on and on it goes moving money and jobs around the world until there is noone left to exploit and capitalism eats itself or starts to respect those who actually do the work for it and we create a more equal society. but hey malvernlite you carry on running with the brianwashing if you want as its entertaining.
I don't need to be told what I think thank you, but I didn't suggest "the ills of the world are caused by the workers" - most people can be won over with the promise of better pay and better conditions, even if it ultimately means they lose their job, such as in the case of miners and British Leyland workers.

I could win your backing by telling you you're overworked, undervalued and underpaid and should get more benefits and a better pension, then after I've won a popularity contest, awarded myself a massive pay rise and secured myself a better pension I'll disappear into the background leaving some stooge to explain why they can't fulfil my promises.
The best part is you'll lap it all up because you're an idiot.

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Mary79 says...
3:15pm Thu 1 Nov 12

or you could say you are a highly talented, sought after individual, with plenty of responsibility and need to be amply rewarded for what you do so you start believing you are a supreme being above the rules of the rest of us. then when you get that big fat salary, bonus and pension and mess the company up or cause a stock market or banking crash, get a nice pay-off and disappear into the night leaving others on equally fat salaries etc to sort the mess out and explain why they/you are worth it all.

so who is the idiot and what exactly is your point?

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M@lvernite says...
6:29pm Thu 1 Nov 12

My point was that that is the reality of how socialism works - you support the unions because they tell you they're looking out for you, when they're only looking out for them selves.
Take the example of the miners, who didn't want to strike but were encouraged to by Arthur Scargill. Most of them lost their jobs because he lost the gamble, but he certainly didn't. Now every miner in the country has to pay £20 a year to fund his luxury central London retirement apartment due to a membership clause he introduced; does that sound like a man of the workers to you? Or what about Bob Crow with his £650 lunches on expenses and threatening to bring the country to a standstill to justify himself?
Then there's the Labour party who you vote for because they promise to level the playing field and make 'the poor' better off by taxing 'the rich', yet they are funded by union subscriptions paid for by the same 'poor', which goes to line the pockets of the likes of tax-dodging multi-millionaire Tony Blair.
Just the same as in your example if you take 'the company' to be the taxpayer.

... So what was your point?

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Mary79 says...
9:01am Fri 2 Nov 12

oh yea i get it now the same old misinformed tar everyone with the same brush daily mailesque, tired, anti union, anti labour, anti public sector, pro taxpayers alliance nonsense rhetoric pre-supposing no-one actually has a mind of their own when they join in with anything or cant see through whats going on. thanks for the clarity which is why you get the rhetoric back rather than proper debate.

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M@lvernite says...
6:24pm Fri 2 Nov 12

Congratulations for 'getting it' at last. I didn't expect to get 'proper debate' out of anyone whose ideals consist of voting for whatever crackpot scheme sounds the best for them, with no consideration for how it can be sustained.

"Vote for me and you won't have to work because the immigrants will do it, I'll give you money, buy you a new car, spend more each year on schools and hospitals while actually making them worse... How will I pay for it? Well that's for the next government to figure out. I'll be long gone by then."

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