A Substantial Sum

Firstly we need to apologise to our readers for being very quiet recently. This is because the day job has had to take priority for a while as it pays the FCCL office bills, plus for once UNISON stuff has had to take precedent too.

But fear not,  we have been taking numerous notes and have a back log of blogs to post so here we go with the first of many in 2014.

This is a BIG SUM

1,000,000,000,000 +3 /5750  =  173913043.478783

BUT THIS  IS A LARGE SUM..........

WYFRS Illegal Surveillance of staff 

+ Getting Caught 

 =
A LARGE AMOUNT OF COMPENSATION  

We also suspect that  ....

SILENCE IS GOLDEN



And that the person concerned has signed a gagging clause

 preventing them discussing the amount they received.

(and to be honest we can't say we blame them)  

BUT

Yet again WYFRS have been caught breaking the law! Directors of WYFRS have been signing RIPA  orders (Regulatory Power Investigation Act ) to enable them to  SPY on their staff. 

Anthea Orchard discovered a tracking device paid for by West Yorks Tax Payers on her car   - she also had  private investigators taking pictures of herself, (and we strongly suspect her children. )

 Firefighter X as we shall call him also had ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE and his human rights breached using  tax payers money. And instead of settling quietly, he was going to take WYFRS to a very public Employment Tribunal where all their illegal activity would have been put into the public domain  ( although we are a tad disappointed as we here at FCCL had saved some annual leave to attend)

But it seems Firefighter X has settled out of court for what has been termed a " very substantial sum" 

But it leaves the basic fact that WYFRS  - namely the conveniently recently retired ACO Martyn Redfearn with serious black marks against his employment record

 - will this affect his large pension  .....Nope,

will it stop  him strike breaking - Nope. ...

It seems Martyn has no morals ! Mind you we  already know Morals don't pay the mortgage

But,   it does also  mean that CFO Simon Pilling is desperate to prevent another Tracker Gate  or indeed  Handbag Gate  (mind you we aren't sure if Fire Fighter  X had a handbag for ACO Rhodes and his colleagues to rifle through if he left the room! )

It also means to us  that EVERY COUNCILLOR  on the Fire Authority is complicit in covering up senior managements mistakes by allowing a compromise agreement rather than the open and fair  process of an employment tribunal. It also means they have something to HIDE !

You may be amazed to learn that West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue are Investors in People accredited, IIP boasts..........

 "We make people management excellence count. We're here to help you realise the potential of your people, improve standards and gain the accreditation to prove it. "

so after you have stopped laughing .....

WE BELIEVE THE TAX PAYER's OF WEST YORKSHIRE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY WYFRS HAVE HAD TO PAY OUT TO COVER UP FOR INCOMPETENT VERY SENIOR STAFF!!!!

Mind you those senior staff have recently put in for a pay rise - how much do you think they should get?  We know what we at FCCL would consider !!!!!

NJC for brigade managers of local authority Fire and Rescue Services

This NJC covers uniformed senior managers – chief fire officers, deputy chief fire officers and assistant chief fire officers. They are represented by the Association of Principal Fire Officers. A formal pay claim for 2013 was received towards the end of last year and a response is currently being considered.

Handbag Gate

We here at FCCL advocate being in a trades union, for many reasons.

 

Firstly, if you ever need support at work it's there and of course the more you become involved in a unions activities  the more benefits you gain.  Education and qualifications are available for members in  everything from basic skills to specialist diplomas in many subjects including employment law and equality.  But the main benefit without a doubt is

if you are up a creek without one,  a union can provide a damn fine paddle!

 

 

But sometimes as well as a belt - you need braces!

 

 or in the instance we are going to divulge below 
 a mobile phone with a recording function.
 

 

 

On the 22nd May 2013, Anthea Orchard signed a compromise agreement with West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue, which in part was an acknowledgement   that they (on behalf of the tax payers of West Yorkshire !!!!) had vicariously breached her human rights by  hiring a private investigation company to provide "directed surveillance" for a period of up to three months, (which included tracking her family car).  This Regulation of Investigative Powers form was signed by Assistant Chief Fire Officer
Martyn Redfearn within HOURS  of Anthea saying she was not fit for duty  on 31st October 2012. Without a shadow of a doubt she was ill and was absent for several weeks - even WYFRS cannot ignore a Fit Note from a GP! 

So, an employee who was already acknowledged as suffering from depression, hypothyroidism and work place stress was placed under (very incompetent) surveillance by ACO Redfearn.
(who is probably sighing a huge sigh of relief that he retired in early 2013 or perhaps he is getting ready to be a SCAB and add strike breaking to his list of misdemeanours)

Anyway fast forward to an office at WYFRS headquarters at Birkenshaw earlier this year...... present in the room are a  newly appointed Assistant Chief Fire Officer (and HR director) , an area manager and an HR representative, an FBU representative and Anthea  (the employee whose car was tracked ) All there to negotiate  her compromise agreement. And we have to say we don't blame her for recording the meeting, on balance we would have done it  too. It's also fair to say that nobody could have envisaged what would have been picked up by the mobile when the meeting was played back.

 

If you listen to the recording  you can clearly hear Anthea and her union representative leaving the room. And after a discussion about the negotiations we believe  the HR person  saying " is that her handbag" some rustling in the bag and her mobile phone being handled and then dropped back into the bag. We therefore think  the person who actually went in the bag was the area manager!

They all knew that they had done wrong by the stress reaction of silence and the nervous clicking of biro's afterwards .......which in first listening to we thought a bit funny. But by far  the worst part is the  saying "That's a bit naughty we should have asked her"  which can of course be interpreted in so many ways.

"That's a bit naughty"  (a mild reprimand  for going in her bag) 

 

"We should have asked her" (for permission to rifle through her bag)

OR

"That's a bit naughty" (recording the conversation)

 

"We should have asked her" (if she was recording the conversation)

Either way the ACO allowed his staff  to go in somebodys handbag

when the owner was out of the room!!!!

We expect all three to be suspended, investigated  and disciplined for gross misconduct!

We have sent a copy of the recording and other names we believe to be involved to CFO Pilling and Cllr Mahboob Khan, Chair of the Authority, which will give them  an opportunity to invoke their new independent senior officer  complaints process.  We do  not believe CFO Pilling is an appropriate person to comment on his ACOs integrity, its going to take an independent person to do that. ( if independent they hopefully  are ???)
 

If our allegations are upheld we cannot help but wonder what the sanctions will be?

We were told recently  an FBU member was demoted for tweeting - the sanction should surely be demotion or indeed dismissal  for the ACO for allowing the tampering with of very private property by his subordinate staff. 

 

 

 

 

Its not a very good start for the  new Director of HR is it?

Having read a significant number of the papers involved with this case we will say just one thing, there is one little ray of hope in that dank immoral pit that is West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Senior Management  and it comes from Mick Smith dated 16th November 2012

 "Always there are two sides to a story" he writes. 

Yes Mick, and having given our side of events  we are keen  to hear the story  that WYFRS come up with for  going into a woman's handbag (seemingly condoned by both an assistant chief officer AND a Human Resources representative who very kindly identified the handbag on the recording for us "is that her bag"  she clearly states) at a meeting to discuss the financial settlement she was to receive for being illegally watched.

Ironic or what!

What made them rifle her handbag in the first place - does it happen often that senior officers go  through their staffs personal possessions? 

Perhaps all meetings going forward at WYFRS should be conducted with hands placed clearly on a table, which may cause problems if the need to scratch ones balls is  required, (but saying that we are  not sure anybody in WYFRS senior management have any anyway).

Heads should roll for this but we  suspect all concerned will be getting a pat on the back  despite red faces all round. 
 
We hear more and more of employees of WYFRS being supported and encouraged to report their colleagues who use social media to  challenge the working practices of WYFRS.  FCCL itself has been cited in  the  pension review of one of its supporters - although  the person concerned has requested via Freedom of Information the actual passages in facebook and on this blog which render the pensioner fit to work (after being retired on ill health grounds ) they  have never received a satisfactory answer. But we eagerly await the next instalment in that particular long running story........ and look forward to the day when we can blog the lot.