Not a joke - Traffic Warden - £8.20 an hour

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Imagine it out in all weathers and getting abuse from irate motorists and making the lives of people doing their best a misery and all for £8.20 an hour. What is that a year? On the standard 36 hour working week that Barnet Council uses it is £15,350 p.a. Would you do it for that? Is it fair and reasonable? What did Barnet Council pay when they employed traffic wardens (Civil Enforcement Officers) directly? Pay scale SCP20 as a minimum which is, Mr Mustard thinks, about £19,947 + the local government pension scheme membership which is worth having.

Civil Enforcement Officer - Role Profile - 100368

So this is the result of One Barnet outsourcing. A two tier workforce with one section getting paid 77% of what others doing the same job get.

What sort of workforce do you get at £8.20 an hour do you suppose? Probably just one that will take any job they can get. Do you leave school thinking you want to be a traffic warden? Mr Mustard didn't either but he did start life as the taxman although that wasn't the plan, being a civil servant was the plan. The way that life changes?

Did Barnet Council tell NSL they wanted pay rates cutting for traffic wardens in the contract they signed? Eventually Mr Mustard will be able to tell you but his FOI request of 13 March is stuck in the sidings somewhere at North London Business Park along with quite a few others. Mr Mustard doubts that a wage reduction is written into the contract but there could be any number of side conversations or unspoken expectations coming into play.

Ignore the bit in the advert by the way about the removal of vehicles. NSL either haven't bothered to read their contract or are too lazy to make a small amendment to their standard advert but vehicle removal is not carried out in Barnet and long may it stay that way as it does not make the borough a better place to live. Mr Mustard has asked officers to ensure that NSL don't advertise this again in the future. It's a good job he, and the other bloggers, are here to keep them on the straight and narrow.

Update on vehicle removal. It has been pointed out to Mr Mustard that abandoned vehicles do have to be removed in Barnet and so the advert may be referring to that removal. Mr Mustard is awaiting further clarification but he hopes that a specialist deals with authorising the removal of vehicles that appear to be abandoned and not someone on £8.20 per hour. Remember how many parking tickets get issued that have to be cancelled because they are wrong. Imagine what havoc would be wreaked if the CEO was able to authorise vehicle removal without proper checks and balances.

Mr Mustard wonders if any councillor knows what has happened to pay since they outsourced the parking contract or do they just wash their hands of it? Every by-election is a chance to remind them of their folly.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard