A union official has hit out at Dumfries and Galloway Council for urging frontline workers to ease Covid staffing pressures – after snubbing them for a £500 pandemic bonus.
Council service managers are now being asked to sign off self-isolation exemptions for workers in services deemed as critical that have been hardest hit by staff shortages.
Unison branch secretary Jan Andrews yesterday accused the council of “double standards”.
She said: “Service managers throughout the council are being asked to assess if absences are impacting on critical functions and services to enable exemption from the need to isolate.
“The Scottish Government and the council should recognise the contribution of all workers rather than rewarding some and not others, then making exceptions to get more of these others back to work because they provide essential services.”
A memo was recently sent to department heads by Mike Shepley, the council’s head of people and transformation, requesting that isolating workers return to their jobs early under government exemption rules.
He wrote: “This exemption process will be voluntary in that staff do not have to go to work if they do not feel able to.
“However, they are expected to return to work if they meet all the criteria for exemption and have been asked to do so by their line manager whose service has been given an exemption under the Scottish Government guidelines.”
The memo sparked an angry response from Ms Andrews who previously complained about the majority of workers missing out on a bonus pandemic payment funded by the Scottish Government, while some colleagues received £500 and teachers pocketed £400.
She said: “We have no doubt that many services are severely stretched as a result of the number of workers having to self-isolate.
“What we cannot comprehend is how the health and social care workers in the council were the only ones deemed eligible for the £500 bonus or thank you payment.
“How can it be fair to reward some workers and not others when they are all providing essential services in difficult times.
“It is impossible to justify how special education needs classroom assistants, who work with children who are vulnerable and immunocompromised, didn’t get a thank you payment yet social care workers in care homes who work with vulnerable service users did get their £500 payment.
“Why were refuse collectors, school janitors, call handlers and environmental health officers not eligible for the bonus?”
Last month, Annandale East and Eskdale Councillor Archie Dryburgh praised council workers for their efforts during Covid, saying: “Across the region we have seen our workforce – whether that be in social work, education, communities, or other departments – rise up and go above and beyond what is expected of them. They continue to do so.”
And council leader Dr Elaine Murray said: “I just wish we had money to pay people more, but unfortunately we at Dumfries and Galloway Council don’t have the cash.
“People have worked extremely hard during the pandemic doing extra hours and jobs they didn’t
expect.”
Council officers advised that it hadn’t been costed or the implications properly assessed.
