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| The friendly face of NSL ( borrowed from Nutsville ) |
Mr Mustard happens to have a friend who works as a CEO, civil enforcement officer, or traffic warden as we used to call them. I know them as JustTheTicket. He/she pops in during their work break if they happen to be patrolling in zone C. Naturally along with a nice cup of tea we have a chat about goings-on at the council and the conversation this week was very illuminating.
The staff met their prospective new employer NSL who will now take over from 1 May not 1 April as originally planned.
First some background and there is lots more on the Nutsville blog.
Should residents be worried about the new Parking Contractor to run Parking enforcement in Barnet?
Yes, according to the Evening Standard
Traffic wardens are being offered store card points if they come up with new ways of catching London motorists. Read it here.
But not just in London also in Folkestone?
The parking wardens who patrol Folkestone's streets are working under an incentive scheme that rewards them with Argos vouchers.
The parking wardens who patrol Folkestone's streets are working under an incentive scheme that rewards them with Argos vouchers.
While getting a ticket is never a happy occasion for the recipient, it will mean money-off coupons at the high street retailer for the warden if they are deemed to be performing well.
Read more here at www.thisiskent.co.uk
You get the idea without a tour of NSL's other installations.
Now to the staff meeting.
Early this week we were told by our soon to be new employer that one of the benefits of working for NSL would be that we would be entitled to get Argos bonus points if we performed well. I think we all understood what this would mean in reality, bring in the tickets and the “flat screen TV will be yours!”
Staff asked what does NSL stand for. It doesn’t stand for anything was the reply although I don’t think they meant it to sound that way?
Early this week we were told by our soon to be new employer that one of the benefits of working for NSL would be that we would be entitled to get Argos bonus points if we performed well. I think we all understood what this would mean in reality, bring in the tickets and the “flat screen TV will be yours!”
Staff asked what does NSL stand for. It doesn’t stand for anything was the reply although I don’t think they meant it to sound that way?
Some of the questions.
“Any chance you won’t force me to meet your parking ticket targets?”
NSL - No Such Luck
“Any chance of working in Barnet instead of Croydon?”
No Such Luck
“Any chance I can have help with the costs of travel to Croydon?”
No Such Luck
“Any chance you can redeploy me to a NSL office nearer to Barnet?”
No Such Luck
As staff we are worried about the NSL ticket target culture we have read about in the press recently, which is why at the meeting staff asked NSL if they had ticket targets. NSL denied they set targets, so a number of our colleagues started reading the recent reports in the national press in particular an article which reported
A parking enforcement firm operated a "clandestine quota system" to issue tickets to motorists in a "predatory and dishonest" way, a judge has found, read the report here.
and the BBC report which found “Traffic wardens were ordered to give out a minimum of 306,000 parking tickets a year by a local council, a leaked contract has revealed.
Mr Mustard is writing to every councillor to try and ensure that the contract with NSL ensures staff do not operate on a bonus system which can only have the effect of pushing parking ticket numbers upwards.
A points system for the issue of parking tickets is manifestly unreasonable.
8.6.3 The Service Provider may wish to reward staff with regard to the quality of their performance, for example, proportion of correct PCNs issued, personal presentation, number of commendations received concerning members of staff etc. Any rewards made must NOT to be linked, in any fashion, with numbers of PCNs issued.
Update 12.10 on Monday 13 February
The contract specification with NSL contains the following:
8.6.3 The Service Provider may wish to reward staff with regard to the quality of their performance, for example, proportion of correct PCNs issued, personal presentation, number of commendations received concerning members of staff etc. Any rewards made must NOT to be linked, in any fashion, with numbers of PCNs issued.
Perhaps NSL haven't read the specification?
Yours frugally
Mr Mustard
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