Last night the SKWAWKBOX exclusively reported that Labour had sacked furloughed staff by letter – from 1 August, the day when the scheme would have started to incur a relatively minor cost for the party.
Now Unite assistant general secretary and Labour National Executive Committee member Howard Beckett has announced that the party has been forced into a u-turn – extending furloughed employment to at least 1 October, when the situation will be reviewed:
A new letter, sent this morning by Labour to furloughed employees, reads:
Dear All,
I’m writing to confirm we have decided to revise our approach to the furlough scheme. Following the meeting earlier this week a number of points were made and we have reflected on these as an organisation.
As a result of the feedback and further discussions we will be writing to those staff affected to confirm the furlough period will be extended to the end of September 2020. There will be a taper in the amount which is received in September (this will be 70% or £2187.50) but this does mean additional support for these employees until then.
Given the fact we provided notice this week, we will be writing to these employees as soon as possible today to provide an update. If you have any questions in the meantime please let me know, however, I hope this provides additional security to this group of staff at this difficult time.
Thanks in advance
Joe
Joe Perry
Director of HR and Safeguarding
Outstanding work by Labour’s left, especially Beckett and Unite.
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This is how a proper union responds. Time to join Unite.
Congratulations to a proper union along with the left wing media and especially Squawk box who seems to be a watchdog for the left on the establishment Labour party of the knight of the realm.Weve not heard the last of this and a master of the dark arts like the knight and his regime will try every dirty trick in the book to follow the government austerity.plans.
I just joined Unite as a retired member – I hope many more will – let the right wing know we’re not going away.
Mr. Beckett seems like a real leader.
I seem to remember a certain neil kincock at a labour conference telling lies about how Liverpool council officials were gallavanting around in taxis, handing out redundancy notices…
(Even if it WERE true, at least they’d have had the stones to do it face-to-face.)
October 1st is the height of conference season. What date’s labour’s conference this year; and I wonder if anyone will return to this subject?
‘Scuttling’ not ‘gallavanting’
That is repeated every time Dereck Hatton’s name is mentioned in the media. I didn’t know what they were refering to as there is never any right of reply by him.
I remember (just about) the taxi redundancy notices issue but not it being challenged or disproved.
Typical of the media I guess. Or of my memory.
Well the only instance I can remember was that embittered anti-socialist ‘reporter’ , the thoroughly odious jane merrick who claimed it happened to her family.
However, three of my cousins were employed by LCC at the time and two were handed notices by their gaffer(s) – not by anyone in taxis. Nor did they hear of it. At least they’ve never told me as much. The third (thankfully) didn’t lose her job and worked for LCC for another 20-odd years IIRC.
Nevertheless, if this stay of execution is just that, and the stammerist party are still planning on getting shut on Oct 1st, this’d be a great opportunity to give it right back to them at conference.
…And it’s indisputable. Stammer (& co) didn’t have the cojones to tell them face to face…And skimped on taxis by sending their redundancies by post 🙂
I was working at the Merseyside Trades Union Resource Centre in Liverpool at the time that the RSL (aka Militant) dominated Left-Wing council DID indeed have to rush around by taxi handing out mass redundancy notices , in circa 1983 or 1984 or thereabouts, as the council’s budget simply ran out (made even worse by the heroic council house building programme undertaken by the council). . So the story is quite true – but the real story of course is the utter betrayal of the Liverpool Council by the Labour Leadership, and the trades union bureaucracy, and, lets not forget , those supposed ‘Left’ council leaders, ‘Red’ Ted Knight and ‘Red’ Ken Livingstone, who capitulated from their joint solemn promise to also refuse to set a budget in line with Tory cuts, and hence left Liverpool’s council to be isolated and picked off , and totally demonised by mass media and Labour Leadership alike ! As Clay Cross Council was a decade earlier by the way. All the councillors were personally surcharged, and banned from holding office again.
1985 it was , the mass handing out of redundancy notices by taxi – to comply with legal redundancy requirements as the council’s money simply ran out.
Labour Conference has been suspended for this year.
Thank you Howard for protecting the staff and even more so for showing the party how wrong it was – we would never have lived down the fact that we sacked furloughed as soon as the furlough started to cost us money. This shameful behaviour would have been brought up at every TV interview from now to Doomsday and could never have been defended. We would have been seen to be totally hypocritical speaking out about workers rights when we had no concern or showed any decency in respect of our own staff.
Seems to me that as well as lacking principle the leadership team is showing itself to be totally stupid as well.Lucky for us we have Howard and his colleagues to keep us on the right track
BBC says Rebecca Long-Bailey was asked by Starmer to step down for retweeting a tweet by Maxine Peake saying the US police learned the knee-on-neck technique that was used to murder George Floyd from Israel.
If it’s factual it’s a disgrace on both counts.
Hatton was a hero for taking on Thatcher and was crucified for it.,He rejoined the Labour party and was again shit on by The Labour party under Corbyn.and thrown out by the Media and the corrupt PLP and NEC.How many loyal comrades have been crucified by the Labour party showing that Cowardice and treachery is not exclusively a right wing trait but infects the whole party.No wonder the party’s over.
the LP A bag o Shite