Copyright scotsman
This included giving staff extra time off if they travel abroad on holiday by train rather than plane. Potentially numerous extra days off. These calls are not new. Left wing councillors have already had officers investigating a “four-day week” for five days pay for council staff. At a recent committee we also saw the left-wing parties railing against the use of Artificial Intelligence by council staff. They were unhappy this had been done without councillor permission, even though it was a limited tool being used to take notes and allow social work staff more time with clients. They used arguments about ethics and environment, but the game was given away in media comments later when they challenge the potential “loss of jobs”. The final piece of evidence came in another motion, accepted by all bar the Conservative councillors, that instructed senior mangers not to use management direction regarding staff, despite mangers saying they didn’t intend to. Ultimately, that decision is one for managers who we task to ensure the service runs efficiently and I am certain this was an overreach by councillors who are barred from getting involved in operational matters. These issues expose an attitude that stresses the purpose of the council as being for its workers, particularly those in trade unions, rather than the public it is meant to serve and it has a hugely negative effect on council productivity. Productivity that is already dramatically lagging behind the private sector. Earlier this week people on social media were highlighting ONS data that shows that public sector productivity in the UK has barely changed since 1997. The private sector in contrasts gets through 40 per cent more work for every worker. That shouldn’t be a surprise given the internet, email, video-conferencing, remote working tools and other massive advancements in data and IT since 1997. What is astonishing is that it has done nothing for the public sector. The bottom line is it is time to grasp the benefits of technological change and use them to give the public better services. The council must be more than just a giant staff benefit scheme.
