West Lothian - Bigmouths and Bullies
At a meeting recent with home carers in West Lothian, two of our clients described an extremely unpleasant encounter with one of the council's elected members - and representative of the Labour Group to boot!
The councillor made it plain he had no sympathy with the carers' equal pay claims because he told them, contemptuously: "All you do is wipe arses all day long!"
Now this is a vile, stupid and offensive thing to say - not just about the carers, which is bad enough, but also about their clients - whom they help to support, so that older people can continue to lead dignified and independent lives in their own homes.
These words are the words of a bully and an ignoramus - and the women on the receiving end felt they were completely powerless to do anything about the councillor's vile language - or to hold him to account for his appalling behaviour.
Wrong!
No one should put up with this kind of abuse - not for a single second! If this were ever to happen to you, our advice is to complain immediately to:
1 The council chief executive - who has a 'duty of care' towards staff and must take such issues very seriously - in West Lothian the CEO is Alex Linkston who can be contacted at: alex.linkston@westlothian.gov.uk
2 The leader of the councillor's party group (though not all councillors are in a party) - since the reputation of the party at stake - in this case it is the Labour leader Graeme Morrice who can be contatced at: graeme.morrice@westlothian.gov.uk
3 The leader of the council - who has the reputation of the council and local community at stake and who hopefully won't play party politics - in this case the SNP's Peter Johnston who can be contacted at: peter.johnston@westlothian.gov.uk
4 The Scottish Standards Commission (SSC) - a independent public body which oversees the conduct of local councillors and can deal with complaints about their behaviour - the SSC can be contacted at: http://www.standardscommissionscotland.org.uk/
So, the bottom line is - fight back, get advice and support - don't let bigmouths and bullies away with this kind of behaviour. The Labour councillor in West Lothian knows who he is and how shamefully he has behaved!
The councillor made it plain he had no sympathy with the carers' equal pay claims because he told them, contemptuously: "All you do is wipe arses all day long!"
Now this is a vile, stupid and offensive thing to say - not just about the carers, which is bad enough, but also about their clients - whom they help to support, so that older people can continue to lead dignified and independent lives in their own homes.
These words are the words of a bully and an ignoramus - and the women on the receiving end felt they were completely powerless to do anything about the councillor's vile language - or to hold him to account for his appalling behaviour.
Wrong!
No one should put up with this kind of abuse - not for a single second! If this were ever to happen to you, our advice is to complain immediately to:
1 The council chief executive - who has a 'duty of care' towards staff and must take such issues very seriously - in West Lothian the CEO is Alex Linkston who can be contacted at: alex.linkston@westlothian.gov.uk
2 The leader of the councillor's party group (though not all councillors are in a party) - since the reputation of the party at stake - in this case it is the Labour leader Graeme Morrice who can be contatced at: graeme.morrice@westlothian.gov.uk
3 The leader of the council - who has the reputation of the council and local community at stake and who hopefully won't play party politics - in this case the SNP's Peter Johnston who can be contacted at: peter.johnston@westlothian.gov.uk
4 The Scottish Standards Commission (SSC) - a independent public body which oversees the conduct of local councillors and can deal with complaints about their behaviour - the SSC can be contacted at: http://www.standardscommissionscotland.org.uk/
So, the bottom line is - fight back, get advice and support - don't let bigmouths and bullies away with this kind of behaviour. The Labour councillor in West Lothian knows who he is and how shamefully he has behaved!
