9 February 2012

Nick Walkley and Poetic Licence

Backlash - a shoe by www.poeticlicence.com

Today, dear reader, Mr Mustard was sent non-stick Nick Walkley's message to the troops in advance of tomorrow's strike.

Here it is (bold large type by Mr Mustard)



From: First Team [mailto:First.Team@barnet.gov.uk]
Sent: 08 February 2012 12:15
To: AllStaff
Subject: Industrial action - Thursday 9 February

I am writing to let you know that Barnet Unison has confirmed another full day of industrial action for Thursday 9 February.

As with previous strikes, this will only affect members of staff in specific services. The services affected are those in scope for the One Barnet Development and Regulatory Services project; Parking; Revenues and Benefits and Social Care Direct, and is in opposition to potential outsourcing of some posts from the council.

All staff who have not been balloted by Unison are expected to work as normal. It is likely there will be picket lines at main entrances which you are expected to pass. As with previous action, there will be senior managers and HR support to escort you across should you feel you need assistance.

Our primary concern for the day is to ensure that we continue to provide a high level of service to the residents of Barnet. If you work in one of the affected services, you may therefore be asked to vary slightly your typical work to support the continuing delivery of services to residents. If you have any questions about the day, please ask your line manager.

Nick

So that doesn't sound very serious does it? Just, "some posts" a dozen maybe, or 20 perhaps. Is that the message you get from this email? It is a carefully chosen phrase to try and pretend that the strike is an unreasonable fuss about nothing. Let us take a look at the December 2011 updated DRS business case ( Development and Regulatory Services - a name for a bundle of services bundled together for the sole point of outsourcing ). It was updated in December 2011. Here is the staff count page.


It isn't "some posts" which will be outsourced but "some people" and if they are all full time that is 232 people, not posts, people.

People. Think of them, not posts.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

2 comments:

  1. Absolutely the point, Mr Mustard: a typical Walkleyism. But then when it is other people's financial security at stake, and not yours, I suppose it doesn't really signify, in the grand scale of things, does it?

    Nice shoes, btw. If they were in a different colour.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They come in two other shades Mrs Angry if you look at the poeticlicence.com website ( I was only there in the interests of the blog you udnerstand ).

    I thought the name of the shoe was most appropriate on a strike day.

    ReplyDelete

I now moderate comments in the light of the Delfi case. Due to the current high incidence of spam I have had to turn word verification on.