UNDER the Freedom of Information Act, it has been reported that at least 132 councils have paid for hundreds of trade union representatives who provide no public service.
This is reported to have cost at least £35m of council taxpayers’ money over the last three years.
Among the top 10 councils who spend the most on this practice are Sheffield, Leeds and, yes you have guessed it, our own Kirklees Council!
It is alleged that the number of full-time officials is nine for 2010/11, at a salary bill of £275,938.
At a time when Kirklees has cut funding to the disabled and discounts for pensioners, this is outrageous. It is perfectly correct that trade unionists should have their representatives, but paid for by the unions, not by council taxpayers.
This, after all, is what they pay their subscriptions for.
Little wonder unions can afford to pay for full-page anti-government propaganda in the newspapers.
I do not recall ever seeing in a party manifesto a suggestion that this should be council policy.
Therefore, they have no mandate from council taxpayers to pursue it.
It could be constituted a gross misuse and abuse of council taxpayers’ money.
I am amazed that none of the other opposition parties have questioned this but, maybe like me, they were not aware of it.
This practice should cease immediately and the monies either saved or re-directed into services.
I pay my council tax for services, not to fund trade union representatives.
democrat
Lindley
Not out of my tax
IN view of cuts being made to frontline services, how on earth can Kirklees Council justify paying out £275,938 in salaries for nine full-time union officials out of our Council Tax?
Surely these salaries should be paid from the trade union members’ subscriptions? I do not pay my Council Tax for this.
The unions are taking money away from vital services and are using it on politically motivated propaganda against the spending cuts.
Mrs B M Vickers
Thornhill
A thankless task
I FIND the Examiner’s May 16 headline ‘£275,000 Bill for Union Leaders’ just a little misleading.
No council pays the salaries of union leaders – these salaries are paid for out of union members’ contributions from a central fund.
What the council will actually indirectly pay is for the time off their normal duties that local union representatives (shop stewards) employed within the council, are allowed by law, to be able to represent their members within the council.
A local union representative – a shop steward – is not a union leader.
The alternative to this sort of system is that the council deals with the problems which are present within most workforces on an individual or national basis and the chaos that would ensue.
These local union representatives, unlike council appointed representatives, are appointed by their members and democratically elected in a majority vote by all their union branch members.
They are normally chosen from the work force, from and by people engaged in otherwise normal employment within the council.
In reality they get their normal salary only when representing their members.
They most certainly will not have their travelling expenses paid to visit relatives in Northumberland or their electricity bill, housing costs and Council Tax paid and they will have to buy their own batteries for whatever use.
They will not go to fancy banquets and will pay their own way to rugby matches.
Most will have normal cars and affordable insurance for the cars.
Most union representatives (shop stewards) will tell you that theirs is a thankless task but they most certainly will not be doing it for any kind of cash reward.
In addition, after further thought on the matter,ŠI would like to remind Conservative Clr Robert Light that it was his government under the dubious guidance of Margaret Thatcher which brought in the laws that he now desires to change.
David Townend
Linthwaite
Climbing career ladder
I READ with interest in the Examiner how a Chief Constable has received a final written warning over allegations that he tried to help a relative get on the police career ladder.
I suspect this sort of thing goes on in many fields of work, but that doesn’t make it right.
Recently Nick Clegg, leader of the Lib Dems, spoke out against nepotism. In too many instances he argued it’s not what you know, but who you know – a view echoed by many who have felt discriminated against at work.
Prime Minister David Cameron disagreed. He didn’t see anything wrong in giving a friend or relative a leg up the ladder if it would further their career.
In some circles, equality of opportunity seems to have gone out of fashion, but surely it’s only right to ensure equal chances for those with similar ability and motivation?
John Appleyard
Liversedge
Stand up for the old
THERE is a saying that the young of today are our future. If true, I despair for that future.
Last week my 86-year-old mother had to go into Huddersfield town centre to have her glasses repaired. She lives at Marsh and so caught the Lindley bus at Marsh going into town.
The bus was full with one person standing and about 10 young people, all in their teens, sitting down. My mother found a place to stand near the door so she could hold on to two poles, thus stabilising her balance. She has a bad leg at the moment but is usually fit. No-one offered to give up their seat for a frail old lady.
Then we find a knight in shining armour appear in the form of the bus driver. He switched off the engine and shouted back into the bus so all could hear: “This bus will not move again until this lady is seated.”
One of the teenagers said: “Well someone will have to give up their seat for her, then.” A few sheepish looks between the teenagers finally prompted one of them to give their seat to my mum.
It should not be that way. All the teenagers should have been queuing up to give their seat to an elderly person, but not so in today’s modern society.
In the early 1950s when I was at school, I was brought up to automatically give my seat to an elderly person. Recently, while in Austria, I gave up my seat to an old lady although I am 66 years old.
Then I began to think about the bus driver’s actions. Was he acting out of chivalry or did he have a more personal agenda?
If, as the bus set off, my mother had fallen in a heap on the floor and maybe broken a bone – which at my mother’s age would have had catastrophic results – would the bus driver have been liable and had to spend the next three days filling in forms and answering to his superiors, and maybe a claim from the company for injuries received? Did these thoughts motivate his actions? I hope it was a genuinely chivalrous action.
Today it seems to me to be every man for himself and the elderly are treated with the minimum of respect.
Garry Coupland
Longwood
The honeymoon is over
MARRY in haste and repent at leisure – this is certainly coming true of our coalition Government. The honeymoon is over and one can see the sparks flying between Cameron and Clegg.
Clegg has suffered so many humiliations on his policies that one wonders why he doesn’t fade into the sunset. As for Cameron, he is a brilliant speaker but actions speak louder than words and he is not providing much to put this country right.
Yes, their relationship is strained to say the least and a divorce could be on the cards any time. Both seem to me out of touch with ordinary working folk possibly because of their elite education.
They say two heads are better than one. This isn’t true in our coalition partnership, as Labour only seems to pick on the faults of the two and very rarely comes up with any good ideas – so we are stuck with two pretenders.
Decree Nisi
Golcar
Army not the answer
A THINK tank suggests a return to National Service, but could today’s young teens take what the 50s generation did?
Would it sort out the nation’s problems? Well, it did sort out the rebellious Teddy Boy generation. Few of them were still Teds back in civvy street, having left their Tony Curtis and DA haircuts on the floor of their training camp barber Sweeney Todd.
National Service also made a man out of a former rebel, Elvis Presley.
But we were different people back then, so no, it wouldn’t work. Just a huge waste of taxpayers’ money – another one!
Eric Firth
Wilsden
Wonderful world
SPRING again and once more what a treat to see Mr Blackbird hopping around the lawn each morning looking for worms to take to the nest in my conifers.I just love to watch him and say thanks again, nature is wonderful.
Mrs T Holroyd
Golcar
