Councillors Get Pay Rises. Low Paid Staff Get Cuts

We have wondered how Newham Council is going to balance its books.

Courtesy of Newham Recorder, we have discovered one of the ways by which they mean to do it.

Juniper Ventures is a wholly owned subsidiary of the council. They provide meals and cleaning services in schools. Their services are purchased directly by schools.

The staff are not highly paid and the overwhelming majority (83%) are Newham residents.

In order to remain “competitive” Juniper sought permission from Newham to adjust, (i.e. reduce) annual leave and sick pay terms.

Newham agreed.

As low-paid staff have the value of their terms and  conditions eroded, Newham councillors  continue to enjoy another year of pay increases.

That might seem a little unfair to outside observers.

There are a number of Labour councillors who like to boast about their trade union membership and activity. It is not apparent that any of them intervened on behalf of the cleaning and catering staff.

So much for solidarity from the comrades.

This news came shortly after it was discovered that Newham had more staff earning over £100k than almost every other council in the country.