‘Stop lining pockets of private agencies’
Council blasted for using pricey firms to plug staff gaps
Union bosses have pressed council chiefs on contracts for their members.
It comes after GMB leaders revealed that some of their Renfrewshire Council workers have been kept on temporary contracts for years, claiming officials should be “embarrassed” over the revelations.
They say the revelation flies in the face of the council’s claim that they only use private agencies to fill shortterm staffing gaps, where their own recruitment processes have been unsuccessful.
The union disputes that, saying they know it isn’t the case.
GMB reps have been at loggerheads with Renfrewshire Council since it was revealed in August that the authority had spent millions “lining the pockets” of private firms to provide them with staff.
Now organiser Kirsten Muat, pictured, has called council chiefs out, saying: “Councillors and officials in Renfrewshire Council should read the account of agency workers and be embarrassed.
“How can they say agency contracts are only short term when we know people have been working in the same place, in the same job, asking for a permanent contract, but being denied one, since 2014?”
She added: “‘Renfrewshire Council should be using every opportunity to offer secure and well-paid employment to the community.
“They shouldn’t be subjecting workers giving so much back to the Renfrewshire community to precarious agency contracts.”
In the 2020/21 financial year, the council spent £2.6million on agencies.
A total of £8m has been handed to private firms in the last two years, the union says - including to hire cooks and cleaners for the area’s schools, as well as to staff Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s care at home services.
Ms Muat previously wrote to council leader Iain Nicolson in August, calling for an end to the practice.
Now she has written again, branding it “disappointing” that he “ignored GMB members” and highlighted the case of one worker who discovered council chiefs were handing over “nearly double” his hourly rate to the agency he is employed through.
They want the council to halt agency useage and give the money to the “community through direct employment” instead.
Fuming union officials say the workers affected lack security and face being told they are no longer required at any time.
They also say the workers are scared to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.
In the document, seen by the Express, Ms Muat adds: “If we don’t hear from you again we will have no choice but to accept your silence as agreement with such practices.”
A spokesman for Renfrewshire Council disputed the claims, saying: “Agency staff are only used where our own recruitment has not been possible and, as reported to the last Joint Consultative Board for scrutiny – the forum between the council and trade unions – there were 137 agency workers, representing 1.6 per cent of the workforce across the council and health and social care partnership, which is less than one per cent of our total staffing budget each year.
“We are committed to developing our own workforce and strive to provide everyone delivering services to the people of Renfrewshire with a supportive working environment.”