sheena farenden's newest comments

My great Nephew is blind due to his mother catching chickenpox when pregnant.

The member of staff should not be a H & S Manager as he is putting other staff at risk order him to stay away or it is misconduct.

Unfortunately seems to be the way at the moment I know of a couple that this has happened to in my union. I cannot understand the employers though the reps are only sticking up for their members which is their role and when it gets to ET the rep usually wins the case.

Lack of consideration!!

I am not sure you understand why a person would be on long term sickness absence it is not just extra holiday it is because of a serious/chronic/life threatening situation.

I can assure you if I am a cancer patient undergoing Chemo or suicidal after a breakdown you are right I am not considering my colleagues at all.

If I had to work with people who were so cold hearted and selfish I no doubt would not consider them either.

However I can assure you there are many who worry and want to be back at work and this does not help them recover quickly.

I think many missed my point regarding the Second World War but maybe that is because I know my history.

If you look into the situation you will see the reasons for my comments. The first people targetted were the disabled then trade unionists, communists, homosexuals and lesbians then the jewish and gypsys and also anyone who did not fit into the ideal or dared to question.

Today the disabled members of our country are being targetted in a disgraceful way maybe not in the same way but still devastating to those involved.

All the others mentioned above are being targetted as well and again not in the same way but bullying and harrassing people for their differences is devastating and will cause some to lose their lives

Oh I forgot to say the average civil service pension not including the mandarins is £4200 per year and many receive less than £2000 per year.

Just watched Question Time and again I learnt something new the firebrigade staff pay 11% into their scheme how many of the private sector schemes expect an 11% contribution.

Hello Sally

I beg to differ in the civil service we do not have a choice it is mandatory to be in the scheme and we cannot add to it either.

As stated earlier in my post when my ex had to pay across a large sum to me because my pension compared to his private sector pension is so bad for same years of service I could not pay this into my civil service pension it is not allowed and I had to find a suitable private pension to invest in.

In my ex's scheme you could pay in more and buy added years not with the civil service pension scheme. Also since 2005 any new members of staff or those returning could only join a newer scheme which gave roughly what the government want us to accept now.

In 2005 PCS members agreed to all the changes on the understanding that existing staff did not lose that which they had built up over years of service and this is the problem if our current pensions were frozen and we had to join this new scheme from now on I think you would find most would agree however this is not on offer.

In the past another scheme was offered which meant we would have to pay more but instead of only the spouse being eligible for benefits a partner would be eligible we were given 6 weeks to decide and as I was married at the time I stayed in the old scheme however when my circumstances changed I could not change schemes.

One of my staff is 58 and was expecting to be eligible for retirement in just over a year however will now have to work until 66 and get a much reduced pension at this time to what she would have got if retiring now. Is this fair 40 years of service no chance to make up this loss and all her plans demolished. She would have continued working if allowed despite the fact that the government would have made no further contributions as you can only have max 40 years service for pension purposes. Shewould then have provided continuing good service to customers as the older staff believe in customer service unlike the newer style management.

One of my colleagues retired a couple of years ago and is living in poverty despite all his hard work as his pension means he is not eligible to benefits but it is not sufficient to pay his rent and bills and then leave him money to live a life. He woulkd have been better off without the wonderful pension as at least he could have got benefits

Further to this I would like to add that even I was shocked when talking to fellow Public Servants in the Prison Service that they earn £15000 per year.
Would you do that job dealing with the sort of people they deal with the 24 hour shifts for £15000 per year?
No well neither would I and unlike many others I do not begrudge them a penny of it. The same as firefighters, soldiers, ambulance staff and Care staff etc who all face horrendous duties for little or no thanks for rubbish pay and little in the way of recognition for what they do.
I would also like to point out that in most departments of the Civil Service the Departments have been cut by massive amounts in the last decade and the I million extra staff where are they because I see no sign of them or are we talking about the Fixed Term Appointment staff who all left long ago.
All I hear at work is the public moaning about the diabolical service and being unable to get through on the phone. This is caused by the massive cuts in staff we have had and the terrible service we receive from our privatised sectors such as IT and Facilities Management. How can we provide Services when the computers are down or we have no paper to print things on. We also get distressed people ringing us because the privatised debt collection is causing serious concerns.

Why are we and other Public Servants being treated this way we did not cause the crisis the banks and the Government did.

It should also be noted that if these workers end up unemployed they will get more in benefit than they were earning as I understand it the best way to deal with this is to keep people in work and paying taxes rather than living on benefits and getting figures like £37,000 by time you take into account all the reliefs etc. You can pay 2 or 3 Civil Servants with this and yes I am remembering the to include all costs.

As I said before this is not about pensions this is only part of the bigger issue of terms and conditions being ripped up and flushed away.

I can assure you all that you will miss us when we are no longer there. Passports, Driving Licences, Stamp Duty Offices, Child Benefit, Tax Credits, Police Officers, Firefighters, Drs, Nurses, Social Workers, Street Cleaners, Dustmen, Environmental Healrh Officers, Border Agency Staff.

All necessary and all under threat.

I have worked both in the private and public sector and can assure you that working in the Civil Service is no holiday and much harder than the private sector.

I do not understand where people get the idea that Civil Service pension is so wonderful. During my divorce my husband fell foul of this misconception when he went after my "gold plated pension" only to find that he had to pay me a lot of money as my pension is so poor.

However that is not what the issue is the issue is that staff have worked under agreed terms and conditions and they are being abolished without negoitiation. No leeway at all. Why should someone have everything taken away from them after 30years loyal service?

The average Civil Servant does not earn staggering amounts of money and does not have a wonderful pension.

Despite media hype they do not earn more than their private sector equals and on the whole do not take more sick.

Up until now it has been recognised that the Civil Service had a high percentage of disabled staff who were treated reasonably unlike many private sector firms who sack people when diagnosed with chronic health issues including cancer. Alas this is also changing and disabled staff are being hounded out of the job.

I wish people in the private sector would realise that we do not get any Benefits in Kind like they do. We do not get time off for Christmas Parties or get contributions toward the cost we do not get Christmas Hampers or Turkey's as many do, we do not get Private Healthcare or company cars/mobile phones, we do not get reduced priced goods or mortgages or share schemes and we can not even partake of the bicycle scheme.

This is an absolutely disgusting thing to propose.

Maybe the government should look into providing grants and support services so all people with disabilities have the chance to work if they are able.

How dare this government propose these Facist ideals.

I think the soldiers of the Second World War must be turning in their graves hearing the sort of thing they fought against being suggested as our way of life today.

Trade Unionists, Disabled etc being treated differently because of their differences is the propaganda they fought against

They should eat before starting work. In this situation I personally would arrive slightly before the start time and eat a sandwich or oat bar to keep me going. It is not your responsibility if they do not eat breakfast.

Please bear in mind it is the employee who applies for the grant it is AtW who state what & where it must be purchased from. it is the employee who ius written to regarding whether the equipment is in place and it is AtW who told me on more than one occaison the equipment is mine or any member of staff they provide it for and they can take it to a new employer

Again be careful as the manager and senior manager may know something you don't like reasonable adjustments or appointments that they have agreed to. You do not have to know anything about why or how.

A few years ago i had a member of staff who had to attend numerous meetings with Psych's, Social workers, Police he did not want his colleagues to know that his partner had tried to kill the kids.

So anyone of them could have thought he was fiddling his flexi but I and my senior manager had agreed to let him have the time off credited on his flexi

It is no ones business you can report again but look again before doing so in case there is more to this than you know or have any right to know

Hi Barry

Yes the accident was at work back in 2007 Iwas on a trining course at another office
I had a fall due to broken walkway and fell and hit my head not sure if knocked out but was in shock and crying. When found I was helped into my car and I drove home. I know but I did not realise my injury was so bad.

The next day not realising the extent of my injury thinking I had a bump and I had injured my back I went into work to complete the forms thinking if I felt bad I would go home.

After about an hour I got up to speak to my manager and apparently swayed like a drunk again not realising the seriousness when told to go to the hospital and drove myself there. I know.

Long and short of it was I was not allowed to leave the hospital until someone collected both me and my car and I was off sick for a few months a the head injury which may explain my actions was worse than I thought.

On my return to work well a few months later I found out that the department dealing with these issues knew nothing about me being off sick let alone it was a RIDDOR injury.

On checking with HSE found never reported by my manager to anyone as per our instructions. I complained to HSE who replied to my manager in writing and to me verbally that as I had returned to work on the Friday RIDDOR was not appropriate I complained but got nowhere

Hi Will

This is in direct contrast to what they told me. I was advised the chair was for my use and I could take it with me when if I left the employer.

Seems strange that AtW would payout and then payout again with the new employer

If Access to Work paid for the equipment it goes with the employee

Remember you maynot know all the facts. If he won he won whether you agree or not

Also remember that any form of bullying or harrassment will lead to your dismissal so please lose the attitude or you will find it is you that will be leaving

Hi Barry
Unfortunately this is not always the case as I know to my detriment.

I had the acident on the Thursday evening and reported for work Friday just to complete the paperwork due to a problem I was sent to hospital and did not return to work for quite a while.

On my return found out my manager had done none of the correct paperwork including RIDDOR however on investigation HSE states that as I had reported for work on the Friday it did not meet the requirement to report under RIDDOR

I think you have a distorted view of how much Civil Servants(CS) earn, how much pension they get and how this reflects with private pensions. For years the Civil Service have accepted lower terms and pay than there counterparts in private industry.

The average CS pension is actually £6000 this includes all the highly paid managers. Howwever most of these pensions are paid to people who have worked for the CS for 30 - 40 plus years.

I know for a fact that if I had worked for that long and paid into a pension with my private employer it would have been worth a lot more. Of course I wouls also have earned a much higher salary in all that time as well.

Most CS staff are on low salaries and often work part-time and I appreciate Julian putting his salary on here but this is misleading as well as he must be in a management role to be on this money most CS staff on much less I am not sure about all Depts as we have differnt salary scales but I believe the salary for the lowest paid starts about £12,000pa for 42 hour week

I would have thought the best thing to do was allow her to come back to work on light duties. I am sure that there must be some work that she can do across the spectrum of the business which would relieve others in the short term. Or get her to do 50% of her work and send her home on gardening leave for the rest of the time as I can assure you that if she is already taking action it will be much worse if you are seen to abuse her through an injury at work.

I know this may seem a stupid question to some but was a full investigation done and was this RIDDOR and was it reported?

Make sure this has all been done or as Phil states this could be setting you up to take the fall.

I am extremely concerned about this pay for not being off sick surely this is in breach of the Equality Act.

Also causes those who are sick to come into work spreading their coughs and sneezes around. when someone does this another member of staff with an immune illness such as Diabetes can then end up very ill. Where is the caring for staff.