Questions for council over binmen dismissals

I WRITE to offer my unconditional solidarity with the refuse workers who have unfairly lost their jobs, and those at risk of future termination by Caerphilly council, in an outrageous abuse of power by the authority.

At the time of writing, a total of seven workers are no longer employed by CBC and 20 more are under investigation for “time management breaches” – but there is more to this story than meets the eye.

CBC refuse workers allege that the authority is illegally surveilling them via cameras fitted on bin lorries. It has also been alleged that employees were told to go home early to spare overtime costs, and were then penalised by the authority for supposedly abandoning their post. There is now talk of potential industrial action unless a satisfactory resolution is sought, and I will very happily support such action if the need arises. Workers are convinced that spying measures initiated by the authority constitute a breach of GDPR data protection law, and that the council is using “breaches” to replace existing employees with agency staff. At the beginning of October, the bin workers protested outside a council meeting considering the troubling case of disgraced council chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan, who was suspended in 2013 following allegations he engineered a pay increase for himself and had been on “gardening leave” for six years before he was recently dismissed without notice. He has received more than £1m of taxpayer money, and the scandal has cost CBC at least £5m (at a time when £8m has been cut from local services).

There must now be an urgent public inquiry to determine whether or not CBC acted beyond its regulatory remit in its dismissals, and ongoing investigations must be halted until such a case is determined. CBC should also be audited by the Information Commissioner’s office on whether the use of its CCTV network complies with GDPR data protection law, and disciplinary action taken accordingly if this is not the case.

Sandra Pierce Pontlottyn, Bargoed

They shouldn’t be paid to disrupt

I WAS shocked to read in the media online that so-called rebellion climate change zealots are paid £400 a week to bring mayhem to our streets. I worked all my life in caring professions but was never lucky enough to earn that much.

I was 12 in 1939 at the start of the war and did my bit to save the planet even after I lost my home, my precious books and belongings, my education after my school was gutted by explosive incendiaries, but I am disgusted by these ludicrous imitations of humans who are pretending to or think that they care.

To get paid for the mayhem they cause and the damage they are doing is unforgivable. Who is doing it and why?

There is now talk of potential industrial action unless a satisfactory resolution is sought...