Hackney Council is under scrutiny for employing casual staff while opposing exploitative contracts, raising concerns among union members and the community.
Hackney: So, there’s some drama brewing over at Hackney Council. They’ve been using casual contracts for library staff, and folks are not happy about it. Critics say it goes against the council’s stance on zero-hours contracts, which they’ve called exploitative.
Recently, Unison members had a heated discussion with the council about how job cuts have led to a heavy reliance on temporary staff. It turns out these temporary workers have been clocking in over 1,000 hours a month! That’s a lot of relief hours, and it’s raising eyebrows.
One library rep mentioned that with all the layoffs, it’s a daily struggle to keep things running smoothly. The number of hours worked by these relief staff is like having nine full-time employees on board. Yet, the council’s own policies seem to clash with this practice.
Interestingly, while Hackney’s Labour-run council hasn’t outright banned zero-hours contracts, they’ve been vocal about their downsides. Their strategy for 2019-2025 even points out that these contracts can lead to job insecurity and exploitative practices.
In a twist, a recent Unison report claims that the terms for these temporary library workers are even worse than zero-hours contracts. They don’t get protections like grievance policies or redundancy pay, which is pretty concerning.
One council director explained that these casual workers are actually former employees who opted for voluntary redundancy and wanted more flexible hours. But some are saying that the payroll still labels them as zero-hours employees, which is a bit confusing.
Unison has been pushing back against the council’s library restructuring since it started. They’ve cut jobs to keep libraries open, but many experienced staff have ended up in this relief pool, which raises questions about efficiency and spending public funds wisely.
Despite the controversy, the council claims they’re providing training and development for all staff, including temporary workers. They say this has helped maintain library services, and a recent survey showed that most users rated the services positively. But with all this back and forth, it’s clear that the situation is far from settled.
