http://m.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/call-for-ban-on-zero-hours-contracts-1-7079272
Whilst CAB was busy in India, I've been busy too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqlVVCvak18
Why not stick to local issues, this is a national problem that cannot be resolved in Hartlepool.
You could always propose banning councillors tendering for council contracts if you're bored.
Of course it's a local issue. If there are people on ZHC within HBC then that IS something we can do something about.
I'm not claiming I can stop tesco or whoever putting people on them, but surely the biggest employer in the town (that's our council by the way) can stop them?
Well done David.
About 10 years ago I happened to be seconded a factory in Stockton. It was run by an Asian and employed 90% Asians. Whilst in the canteen I read the notices on the wall and was shocked at the contents. It said no hours were guaranteed and that you could be sent home without pay at any time if there was no work for you. You also had to be on standby every day to be called in at short notice if there was any work for you. There were lots of other rules about how much you would be docked for a long list of infringements of the rather lengthy rules and regulations. At the time I put it all down to someone exploiting his countrymen and little did I know I was witnessing the thin end of the wedge.
Well done David, this is prime example of the civic leadership and holding to account that has been missing for years- if ever !
As an aside, David has made a good point elsewhere today that HBC is the towns biggest employer and as such should be leading by example.
The fact that HBC is the towns biggest employer also tells you a lot about what is wrong with Hartlepool. The town has to employ more people in the running of the town than in generating some sort of meaningful economic output.
This means taxpayers money is being spent without it being replenished....This is before the wastefulness in certain quarters.
Quote from: Balotelli on January 30, 2015, 01: PM
The fact that HBC is the towns biggest employer also tells you a lot about what is wrong with Hartlepool. The town has to employ more people in the running of the town than in generating some sort of meaningful economic output.
This means taxpayers money is being spent without it being replenished....This is before the wastefulness in certain quarters.
This is the way Hartlepool and other blighted areas function. No one ever talks about it but the fact of life is that Hartlepool is totally reliant on Government spend to keep its head above water. Everyone knows how the game is played. 'Aid/Grant/subsidy' is doled out to keep these ghost towns working and workers were shuffled on to long term sick pay to disguise the real unemployed numbers Cameron has now decided to concentrate all his spending in Tory safe seats and marginals so we are cast adrift and well up sh*t creek.
The brutal truth is this subsidy Hartlepool has 'allowed' to hang on to its surplus of industrial workers that built up when the Shipyards, docks and heavy industry died in the early 60's. It might have been kinder to allow the town to shrink naturaly as people moved to where the jobs where rather than creating this web of government funded non-jobs that seem to have taken over. Our councillors won't say anything because most of them make a very good living from the public teat. Only one is known to fund himself entirely with bribes & kickbacks from the private sector.
Hartlepool can not sustain itself with the amount of jobs on offer in the region. There will never be enough real jobs to keep the town in work.
MK1,
You and I are coming dangerously close to agreeing on this one.
I retain a little glimmer of hope that the real poor state of the town is terminal. It might just need a very skilled surgeon to save it.
Sadly, all I see are poorly trained monkeys.
Well done David. Interesting times ahead
An excellent proposal David Riddle well done PHF, onwards & upwards!
With regard to your comment underneath the Mail article ''If this doesn't get voted through at least we'll know for sure that the Labour Party (as most people recognise it) is well and truly dead in Hartlepool.''
Ditto... I couldn't agree more! This should ::) 'separate the wheat from the chaff' at the next Council meeting 15/2/15
Labour have pledged to abolish Zero Hours Contracts but with a rider only after you have been employed 12 weeks, what's to stop an employer and they will believe me making you redundant on or before 12 weeks then employing some one else or re-employing you a couple of weeks later ?
They should be abolished 100%, end of !
Quote from: The Great Dictator on January 30, 2015, 10: AM
Why not stick to local issues, this is a national problem that cannot be resolved in Hartlepool.
You could always propose banning councillors tendering for council contracts if you're bored.
Surely David made it quite clear, in his article, that the motion was aimed at HBC.
Quote from: WhatTheHeck on April 18, 2015, 11: AM
Quote from: The Great Dictator on January 30, 2015, 10: AM
Why not stick to local issues, this is a national problem that cannot be resolved in Hartlepool.
You could always propose banning councillors tendering for council contracts if you're bored.
It is a local issue HBC employ people on Zero Hours Contracts and if you want them abolished you need to vote for the local Labour MP !
Surely David made it quite clear, in his article, that the motion was aimed at HBC.
The great dictator is correct Driddle it is a national issue the labour gov says it will get rid but the labour controlled council employs 22 as do many other labour council's, another national issue you could look at and join with me is Hartlepool council employes 3 full time Union representatives whose pay is from the taxpayer with hartlepool council strapped for cash and the unions able to give over 10 millions to the labour party these posts just seem untenable. What say you.
Quote from: beanzontoast on April 20, 2015, 12: PM
The great dictator is correct Driddle it is a national issue the labour gov says it will get rid but the labour controlled council employs 22 as do many other labour council's, another national issue you could look at and join with me is Hartlepool council employes 3 full time Union representatives whose pay is from the taxpayer with hartlepool council strapped for cash and the unions able to give over 10 millions to the labour party these posts just seem untenable. What say you.
Well I would say that both issues, zero hour contracts and union officials being paid through the council tax have been raised by PHF in the council chamber. The zero hour contracts has led to the current review which is taking place and the matter of union officials being paid through the council tax was voted down by labour (and the Tories, bizarrely)
So what I say to you, Tom is - do catch up, for heaven's sake. Weren't you listening when these debates took place?
Just wanting a reply is all from yourself is all, but not one to let the labour side vote down a good cause as school teachers are apt to say must try harder, and the request to side with UKIP in bringing this to the council, hopefully it will be easier after May 7th I take it you are the new spokesperson for PHF.
Quote from: beanzontoast on April 20, 2015, 02: PM
Just wanting a reply is all from yourself is all, but not one to let the labour side vote down a good cause as school teachers are apt to say must try harder, and the request to side with UKIP in bringing this to the council, hopefully it will be easier after May 7th I take it you are the new spokesperson for PHF.
Is it medication or are you pished?
Hey Tom, I think the Mayor was sacked from his day job you know?.......... we should perhaps raise that too?
"the labour controlled council employs 22 "
The reason you know this, Tom is because someone from PHF asked the question when they called for the council to stop using zero hour contracts. Now you're telling Riddle like your telling him something new. If ever HBC puts on Alice in Wonderland for a Christmas Pantomime, I nominate you to play the Doormouse.
http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hartlepool-council-aims-to-get-rid-of-zero-hours-contracts-1-7208356
Yes the Mayor was sacked from his day job, he was also an embarrassment not only to the residents of Hartlepool, himself and the labour party the independents and PHF brought the motion for him to stand down and then resign. As I recall both UKIP councillors supported you on both motions .in fact after the last vote SAB stopped me in the corridor and threatened to send a tape recording to the mail re a conversation I had with him which he had secretly recoded I told him to print it my decision still stood needless to say he didn't do it.
Marky the reason I know about the 22 council staff on zero hours contracts is precisely because I'm on the Finance and policy committee, however I did miss one full council meeting. The point is labour has denounced them as unsavoury and yet employs 22 on the council and 3 full time union officials paid for by the taxpayer.
Yes the Finance and Policy committee discussed zero hour contracts because of a motion put by PHF in the previous council meeting. Whether you were at that council meeting or not, I would expect you to at least be aware of the PHF motion. You would have been sent a copy of the meeting agenda and of the minutes of the meeting afterwards. Instead you suggest that Riddle isn't even aware that the council employs 22 people on zero hour contracts when it is in fact Riddle, along with his PHF mates, who have already raised the issue.
The same is true of the union officials being paid through the council tax - although I think you'll find its closer to the equivalent of one and a half officials - half of what you claim.
Frankly, it's hard to take any of your comments seriously when you are so unaware of what is going on around you. Why don't you just admit that it's PHF and Independents that are doing all the running while you and your mate are sat in the trailer behind wondering what planet you're on.
I made no suggestion at all that Driddle was not aware the council employed 22 zero hours staff! However if that is the way it comes across then it was purely unintentional, I will say again though that with 19 labour + 3 torys in a vote the rest have no chance, is it just me in thinking the 3 torys on the council don't get as much fire and brimstone thrown at them as UKIP. you would almost think that there was no labour government in power for 13 years perhaps we had better not mention it after all if Ed Milliband forgets to mention it at the labour conference who are we to remind those trusting souls who vote for him, now what are those words to keep the red flag flying here.
I'm hopeful of a reply marky to my request of the words to the red flag! And if I have not overstretched my luck an indication of how your 1and a half union reps is much nearer the mark than my 3. There hhas been an interesting article on this very subject in the northern Echo the comments were very interesting, there was however an interesting article in the mail regarding NHS fat cats I thought they were strapped for cash.
I spent a number of years...11, working part time for local government: and the inability of my masters to make any decision was frightening at first, then laughable.
Cut backs came with the dross, you know, the people who actually kept away from meetings with bickies and cuppas and actually contributed something positive and constructive in all weathers.
There is a hierarchy designed to protect the builders of the mini empires and these people in self and crony built lofty positions are so far removed from those struggling to make ends meet that observation of it should be given a health warning!
Zero hours contract are a little step up from slaves and coolies.
Zero hour contracts always remind me of the men standing at the dock gates waiting to be picked for work
Quote from: testing times on April 21, 2015, 08: AM
Zero hour contracts always remind me of the men standing at the dock gates waiting to be picked for work
It's worse for me - it reminds me of days spent taty picking as a kid ;D