To Him That Hath Shall Be Given More by Les May

IT’s no secret that since the Tories came into power in 2010 local authorities have been starved of money. My local authority, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC), is no exception, so it is interesting to look at how our councillors are trying to save money. Or to put it another way, who is being targeted in any cost cutting exercise.

Schools have a number of employees who are employed on a term time only basis. Such employees remain on a continuous contract, work a reduced number of weeks during the year and are entitled to a pro-rata amount of paid leave.

Since April 2019 guidance in the form of an updated ‘Green Book’ has been available to employers and employees which is intended to ensure that the pay and conditions of term time only workers is consistent and fair, both locally and nationally.

Whilst no specific legislation is in place about how to calculate pay for term time only workers the guidance is intended to ensure that they are treated no less favourably than workers on full time contracts.

Not all local authorities across Greater Manchester have interpreted the guidance in the same way with the result that some Councils have made calculations more favourable to term time only employees than others. The calculation used by Rochdale MBC falls into the ‘less favourable’ class.

To date at least seven Employment Tribunal claims from past employees have been submitted to Rochdale MBC. Late in 2019 UNISON submitted a Collective Grievance which says that term time only employees are being treated less favourably than full time employees. So far this seems to have produced a ‘working party’. In the future Rochdale MBC may have to face something like 500 individual claims from ex-employees.

So how are some ‘full time’ employees being treated by Rochdale MBC? According to one of my informants it seems to depend on ‘who your are’. He claims ‘whilst Rochdale Council's Chief Executive Steve Rumbelow has enjoyed (and continues to enjoy) a whopping £40,000 / year pay rise. This pay rise came about due to Mr Rumbelow being handed a second £40,000 / year full-time job at the NHS, on top of his existing £160,000 / year full-time job at Rochdale MBC.’

I’ve no reason to disbelieve this so it would seem that ‘Superman Rumbelow’ is performing the remarkable feat of doing TWO full time jobs simultaneously. Presumably he keeps a sleeping bag handy in his office so as to be on call 24/7!

Are our councillors happy that the town’s Chief Executive is moonlighting in another full time job whilst supposedly working full time for the people of Rochdale and being well paid for it? Seemingly the answer is yes, at least in some cases.

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