Kenyon: The Princess, The Eccles and the Paupers – The Hypocrisy Continues…

We are all being hit very hard by the ever-increasing cost of living rises. 5% increase, so we are told – we all know that is a figment of someone’s imagination, and the actual increase is so much more.

Each and every one of us knows that nearly every item you pick up in the supermarket has increased; for example, by 19p or 29p even on low priced items such as tomatoes and beans etc. Items that were £1 are now £1.50. Price rises are also hidden by there being less contents in packets, our weekly shopping bills are soaring and Ferret does not need to tell you by how much.

Then there is Gas, Electric, Petrol and Diesel, the price hikes continue, seemingly on a daily basis. All price rises above any pay or pension increases are actually a pay cut and reduction in our standard of living.

So, what is our spend spend spend Independent Hemsworth Town Council’s response to this in order to help it’s precept payers and staff?

We know they have failed to deliver their election pledge of a reduction of precept of £200000 for 3 years now but when, as we keep thinking they have hit rock bottom, another basement opens up.

Ferret was very surprised and concerned to say the least, to see the rates of pay that Mr Jim Kenyon’s Independent led Hemsworth Town Council are now paying their or should I more correctly say, our seasonal and apprentice training staff.

Seasonally employed, are the people who are most vulnerable due to the nature of their employment not being permanent. Ferret can reveal that Independent Hemsworth Town Council have actually cut the rates of pay that seasonal staff receive and are paying apprentices the bare minimum.

A recent Hemsworth Town Council Job advertisement for seasonal staff stated the following pay rates:

• 16 to 17 – £5.72
• 18 to 20 – £7.20
• 21 to 22 – £10.34
• Age 23 plus – £10.71

These are not “pocket money” jobs and people are adults at 18, legally entitled to vote and likely to be having to support themselves, and enduring the same hardships as the rest of us.

Ferret believes the previous Town Council recognised that the rates of pay were unacceptable and discriminatory and believed it was right and proper to pay the Adult living wage, regardless of age and additionally, when they were working with and alongside Council staff, they were paid the full rate for the job as their colleagues on permanent contracts.

In other words, if they were doing the same work as someone else they were paid the correct nationally agreed rate for the job.

Ferret is also concerned about the rates of pay being offered to staff on apprenticeships; this is even worse, as stated in in a recent Hemsworth Town Council Job advertisement:

Hours 37 per week and pay in line with national apprenticeship wage. Those rates of pay are currently:

• Age 16 to 18 – £4. 30 per hour.
• Age 19 and in your first year of apprenticeship – £4.30
• Age 19 to 22 and have completed your first year of apprenticeship-National minimum wage £8.36
• Age 23 – National living wage – £8.91.

Even here we have adults working alongside adults, this time on a permanent basis and being paid a pittance by a Local Town Council. Virtually almost all the time, they will be engaged in the same day to day duties as the colleagues they are working with and receiving considerably less even at the age of 23.

The same grass cutting, gardening, lake duties, watching over the sports facilities and Community Centres, changing the same light bulbs, using the same equipment on the allotments and watching over the same Playworld.

The same Local Town Council that has created a multi-faceted job for an alleged friend of the Chair of the Council Jim Kenyon and who has been swiftly elevated to the second highest staff position in the Council, with a salary to match of course.

The same Local Town Council that also has the millionaire friends of the Chair of the Council Kenyon, Councillors Gordon and Jean Eccles, being the recipients of thousands of pounds worth of our precept money spent on their own personal properties.

Ferret Hopes that Hemsworth Town Council will reconsider the pay rates for their seasonal and apprentice workforce and place them on a scale befitting their ages, the roles they undertake and their needs that are the same as everyone else’s.

The Princess, the Eccles’ and the Paupers, Hypocrisy at its worst…