Councillor contempt!

As our caption competition was a complete FLOP  (not one person entered ) we now have a "Hot Dates" calendar we do not know what to do with.  Some at FCCL are screaming political correctness - some aren't. - Boss Hooch is moaning about equal opportunities - WYFRS do employ female fire fighters, so why arent there any of them draped round a pole topless. Sarah reckons it's deameaning, citing that if you were to be rescued from a fire you would not give a hoot what the fire fighter looked like.  
Anyway we paid our fiver for it,  which is for a very noble cause

The Fire Fighters Charity

so nothing has been lost and the calendar has been consigned to a drawer. 


So our competition is  no longer valid 
BUT  
can you guess which of our  62 posts has been read the most
AND 
shared to date?

This one,  available here  in  which we discussed Protected Disclosure and Whistle Blowing! 

It beat second placed  Employee Consultation, available here  
by a WHOPPING 44%.

As we can now measure our success in THOUSANDS  we can only hope that our post pricks someones conscience and a whistle is blown loud and clearly.

AND 

its not quite whistle blowing BUT it is extremely annoying.


We at

FCCL 

have, on a regular basis, contacted the 

Councillors, who make up the Fire Authority of WYF&RS, 

to make them aware of the contentious issues that have arisen in regard to plans that they will soon have to make a decision upon ,

on your behalf!

 Unfortunately we have to report that certain elected officials have shown contempt toward their electorate - by deleting the messages we sent them, without having the respect to even open the emails and view the contents.

One of those is:-

Councillor Gill Thornton
(you can E mail her here)!

Courtesy of Keighley News 

Labour Group - Bradford District

Chair Human Resources Committee

Member of Finance and Resources Committee

Bradford District Community Safety Lead Representative

 The message that we sent to her was deleted 

"without being read on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:49:20" 

So a message to all those who voted for her is - 

SHOW HER THE SAME CONTEMPT - 

and do not vote for her again!

Cllr Thornton receives in excess of seven thousand pounds a  year for her duties as a fire authority councillor - comprising of

£3,411 basic allowance
£3,764 special responsibility allowance 
(chair HR committee)


BUT........there is one councillor in the FCCL good books - Cllr Mark Dobson - Labour - Garforth ward,  Leeds has waded into the debate and sent a letter available to read HERE  to CFO Pilling. We do hope he keeps to his word - we remember last year when local Leeds MP Hilary Benn wrote opposing the cuts and then retracted it via phone after being called by CFO Pilling. We watch and await developments with interest............

Protected Disclosure - is it time for somebody to blow the whistle ?

Most people we have met who work in the fire service 
(and that number increases on a daily basis)

 agree that 

FIRE CUTS COST LIVES. 

So as in our previous post Employee Consultation    ......... we discuss the lack of transparency and consultation with "coal face" firefighters.


Very few people disagree with us - of course the Chief Fire Officer Simon Pilling does, he seems to view these proposed cuts in provision as positive - all we can think is that in the confines of his private office he wears rose tinted glasses + a pair of blinkers!  (which may be the reason he puts his assistants in the fire line instead of facing the public himself.) click HERE to read what Ed Balls MP said about him. 


Even one of his Assistant Chief Fire Officers agrees with us (or perhaps quite simply refused to lie to a parliamentary select committee). Martyn Redfearns appearance reported by the BBC is available HERE  and our article about the cuts is HERE - and aptly named If there are cuts - will people DIE


So how come ACO Redfearn told the truth - well in reality we will never know?  But lets make an educated guess...........

31st December 2012  its bye bye Martyn --- after 30 years service he will retire. So even if he was to be hauled over the coals it would in reality make no difference to him. And  in reality he is also covered by the

THE LAW

There is a law which allows an employee to "blow the whistle"

Whistleblowing is when a worker reports suspected wrongdoing at work. Officially this is called ‘making a disclosure in the public interest’.

A worker can report things that aren’t right, are illegal or if anyone at work is neglecting their duties, including:

• someone’s health and safety is in danger
• damage to the environment
• a criminal offence
• the company isn’t obeying the law (like not having the right insurance)
• covering up wrongdoing

So how do you blow the whistle .........?

The way a worker can ‘blow the whistle’ on wrongdoing depends on whether they feel they can tell their employer.

The worker should check their employment contract or ask human resources/personnel if their company has a whistleblowing procedure.

If they feel they can, they should contact their employer about the issue they want to report

If they can’t tell their employer, they should contact a ‘prescribed person or body’.

A list of prescribed bodies is available HERE   

OR

there is also a charity called Public Concern at Work who can advise you. Their website is available HERE  

PCAW can advise you and also have trained legal advisors who can help and guide you through the process (and will also talk through your concerns confidentially).

So if your head is telling you something is wrong, and as we strongly suspect WYFRS are manipulating their figures - 

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE  

use your head, put your hand on your heart

and  do something about it.

IF YOU ARE TELLING THE TRUTH 

THE LAW WILL PROTECT YOU !

(and just in case you are interested IF you are proved by an employment tribunal to have been dismissed because  of a protected disclosure the compensation has no limit) 

We here at FCCL have personal experience of WYFRS trying to silence us and we can only imagine what an ethical dilemma it will be for the fire fighter or other employee who is brave enough to  do this, but surely nobody reading this blog would disagree it is the responsible thing to do. 

Fire fighters are brave people who do a dirty, dangerous job, but if these cuts go through it will get even more dangerous and WYFRS senior officers do most certainly know how to play dirty .................may be its time for a change.............................. 

And of course as we at FCCL believe in transparency at some point when we are able we will tell you how WYFRS tried to 

SHUT US UP 

Anyway as usual if you would like to take part in the process of consultation  please see the details below. And if you would like to read what constitutes a "stakeholder" in the engagement process click HERE 

TO send YOUR VIEWS on the proposed cuts in West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Provision 

Click HERE  to view the consultation documents.

You can also send your comments via snail mail to 

Hannah Stoneman   or email her HERE

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue

Oakroyd Hall

Bradford Road

Birkenshaw

West Yorkshire

BD11 2DY