QUESTIONS are being raised about the legality of the council’s response to strikes by its employees.
Staff who work unsocial hours will strike again next weekend after Tory-controlled Cheshire West and Chester Council stopped premium payments for overtime, weekend and bank holiday working.
And Unison is contacting employment agencies drafted in by the council to highlight that providing cover for strikers is potentially illegal and could lead to court action.
The union is also unhappy that some agency care staff have not undergone criminal record checks.
Unison regional officer Maria Moss said: “Reports that staff who had no criminal records checks were used and paying non-striking staff double-pay has really rubbed salt in the wound for staff who are already very angry.
“It also raises real questions about the standard of service provided by the council to vulnerable clients during the strike. It is time that councillors sat round the table and resolved this dispute instead of burying their heads in the sand.”
Next weekend’s strike will hit services including residential care, libraries, markets, street cleaning, sheltered housing wardens and emergency duty social work cover.
Council spokeswoman Rachel Ashley denied drafting in agency care staff to look after vulnerable adults was acting outside the law – rather the strikers may be committing an offence by potentially endangering human life.
She added: “We firmly believe that fulfilling our duty of care to this group of highly vulnerable individuals overrides any other point of law in this case.”
Mrs Ashley confirmed some agency care staff were not CRB checked but were never left without supervision which was ‘as per normal protocol’.
Tory staffing committee chairman Cllr Alan McKie said: “We understand the unions are planning further strike action next weekend, despite the fact that their revised proposals are to be considered at the next Staffing Committee on May 28.”
He added: “Given their failure to engage constructively with the Council for 18 months, we find it baffling that the unions are not prepared to wait two weeks for this matter to receive full and proper consideration.”
