Politics
Oops! 4-day week poll backfires on East Cambs Council leader
Council leader Anna Bailey has been left red-faced after an online poll of a neighbouring council’s proposals found only 25 per cent supported her.
Cllr Bailey, leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, described as “shocking” a 3-month trial proposed for South Cambridgeshire District Council for a four-day week.
So, she organised a Twitter poll.
“Do you agree with proposals by South Cambridgeshire District Council to move from a 37.5 hour/5 day working week to a 30 hour/4 day working week with 100% pay?” she asked her followers on Twitter.
“They can’t recruit staff, so they are going to let office-based staff (who in fact work from home) work a 4 day week for the same pay,” she tweeted.
And she added all this “whilst making field-based staff (who they call ‘blue collar workers’) like the grass cutters work a 5 day week for no extra pay,” said Cllr Bailey.
Her poll, when it closed on Friday, attracted a respectable 403 votes.
And it didn’t necessarily deliver the result she might have hoped for.
Of those that cast a vote, 74.7 per cent agreed with the proposals by South Cambs Council.
The three-month trial of a four-day week could begin in January for around 470 desk-based staff at South Cambridgeshire District Council.
A decision will be made by the council’s Cabinet.
Cllr Bailey tweeted other council leaders to ask about their working arrangements.
She also took a swipe at Labour Mayor Dr Nik Johnson.
“Hi,” she tweeted. “As Labour leader of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority will you be taking up the South Cambs policy of a 4-day working week for 100 per cent pay?”
Mayor Johnson, like Mayor James Palmer before him, doesn’t receive a salary but an allowance.
The actual amount is set by the Independent Remuneration Panel.
Cllr Bailey is yet to tweet her thoughts on the poll result.
