Council review Single Status
– Union “more optimistic” after Kilmory meeting
Argyll and Bute councillors met last week with union representatives in the latest stage of the ‘single status’ pay and grading consultation exercise.
During the meeting, held at the full council meeting in Kilmory last Thursday, the council outlined a revised pay and grading model, intended to ease the pressure on employees in lower grades.
The council also addressed concerns raised about clerical posts, and has re-categorised these jobs, with the results due to be announced to employees in September. Staff are to be given a further four weeks to lodge an appeal after receiving this notification.
The overall impact of these amendments should see a reduction in the number of employees who are “red circled” (ie whose pay will go down under the new structure) from 698 workers after three years to 178 employees.
The council is in ongoing talks with unions regarding conditions of service for council staff.
Talking after the meeting, Argyll and Bute Council’s Depute Leader, Councillor Robert Macintyre, said: “I am pleased that the council was able to support a revised model which I believe responds positively to many of the issues raised through the consultation we undertook with staff and the unions.
“This model reduces the number of staff adversely affected and creates, for clerical posts, a revised scale which can better reflect the diversity and complexity of those roles”.
Single Status does not affect all staff within the council - only manual and some grades of office jobs are affected. Those unaffected include teaching staff, craft workers and chief officers.
Apart from changes to salaries, amendments are also proposed to payments for premium time working.
Under the original proposals, there would be no payment for unsocial hours, no double time or premium time payments at weekends.
Core hours for staff would be 6am - 8pm Monday to Sunday, and working hours, while based on 37 hours, will be calculated over a year, rather than a week.
The proposed changes will largely impact on employees in libraries, leisure facilities residential units and home helps - in a bid to save £450k from the council budget.
The argument for the removal of double time, which will save £150k, is based on sex discrimination law, since the vast bulk of those qualifying for the payment are men.
It is understood that there are no plans for compulsory redundancies within the current proposals. The view of Argyll and Bute Council is that ‘natural wastage’ through the normal process of retirements and other leavers should take care of any cost savings required under the single status proposals.
From the union side, Donald Brown, local branch chairman for Unison, commented after last week’s meeting: “We are more optimistic now with these new proposals, especially in relation to clerical staff.
“We can’t make an overall judgement, however, until we see the final details from the council”.


Drama at sea off Ettrick Bay
There were dramatic scenes off Ettrick Bay on Bute last Saturday, as the Oban registered fishing vessel ‘Prospect’ and her crew were rescued from certain sinking.
A distress call was received at 1.26pm by Clyde Coastguard, reporting a vessel sinking off the west coast of the Isle of Bute. The crew of two, having safely taken to their liferaft, could only watch as the vessel sank before them.
Tighnabruaich and Largs RNLI lifeboats responded quickly, as did HMS ‘Penzance’, a Royal Navy minehunter, which was on surveying duties in the Firth of Clyde at the time.
Although some two hours away, HMS ‘Penzance’ moved quickly to offer the ‘Prospect’s’ crew the various skills of the teams on board.
The Faslane-based warship arrived in the nick of time. Despite the best efforts of the two lifeboat crews using their pumps to stop the 10-metre long vessel sinking, it was clear that they were fighting a losing battle.
The ‘Prospect’s’ bow was underwater at that stage, and experience told the lifeboat crew that without immediate assistance, she would sink within the next 10.
A four-man team, made up of a variety of specialists from the Royal Navy crew, transferred a portable emergency pump to the stricken vessel and, within 15 minutes, had the ‘Prospect’ back on an even keel – literally.
Having averted her certain sinking, HMS ‘Penzance’ then took the fishing vessel in tow and cautiously moved her away from the beach that she was being blown towards. Once clear of immediate danger, she was towed to a mooring buoy where the Royal Navy engineers were able to identify and rectify a fault with a sea-cock in the vessel’s bilge.
The crew were transferred to the Tighnabruaich lifeboat and taken safely back to shore, while the now-stabilised ‘Prospect’ was towed to Ardmaleish boatyard on Bute, from which she had sailed that morning.
The Commanding Officer of HMS ‘Penzance’, Lieutenant Commander John Craig, said: “My team reacted swiftly, calmly and with the utmost professionalism – exactly as they have been trained to do. The reconnaissance party had minutes in which to assess an extremely hazardous situation and make decisions that ultimately resulted in the saving of not only a fishing vessel, but also the livelihoods of the fishermen.
“The lifeboats had already exhausted all avenues of approach prior to our arrival, and it was gratifying when we were able to help them bring this challenging situation to a happy conclusion.
“Today’s seamless co-ordination between the coastguard, the lifeboat crews, ‘Prospect’s’ crew and us is an excellent example of what can be achieved when people pull together for the common good. It was a pleasure to be able to help.


Western Ferries under fire from MSP
Ferry operator CalMac has accused rival operator Western Ferries of coming up with ‘spurious’ arguments in the latest in a series of disputes between the two.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, Western Ferries expressed concern regarding the amount of taxpayers’ money used to subsidise train passengers on CalMac’s Gourock-Dunoon route.
These concerns were linked to findings presented in a recent report published by the Highlands and Islands Strategic Transport Partnership (HITRANS), which indicated that train passengers from Dunoon are subsidised £52 per return trip, to catch the train in Gourock.
Western state that CalMac are provided with a subsidy on the Dunoon route to satisfy the Executive’s aim of facilitating integrated public transport systems between the ferry and the train service.
In the press release, Gordon Ross, Managing Director of Western Ferries commented: “The HITRANS report estimates that approximately 95,500 passengers use the ferry to connect with the train service, and CalMac receives millions of pounds of subsidy to provide this service. This seems like an awful lot of taxpayers’ money to be spent on just a few passengers.
“We accept that passengers need and want to use the train at Gourock, but perhaps there is a more cost efficient way of getting them to the rail head.
“We believe that given this level of usage the Executive could operate a fleet of taxis between our terminals and the train station in Gourock and the town centre in Dunoon and thereby save the taxpayer almost £1.5 million annually.”
CalMac’s Director of Communications, Hugh Dan MacLennan, gave the following response: “We at CalMac have no inclination to indulge in a spat with a rival operator.
“We believe that Mr Ross’s argument is fundamentally flawed and spurious, and not really worthy of further comment.”
Meanwhile, Argyll and Bute MSP Jim Mather commented: “I recognise the importance and success of the Western Ferries’ service between Hunter’s Quay and McInroy’s Point and the contribution it makes to the economy of Cowal and Argyll, however their recent interpretation of HITRANS data is neither helpful nor even-handed.
“It conveniently ignores the fact that Western Ferries are on the receiving end of what is effectively a very material subsidy in that the CalMac route is only permitted to offer an hourly service and is restricted in its time of operation.
“As a result Western Ferries at present has a virtual monopoly vehicle service between Gourock and Dunoon. It now appears to want a total monopoly.
“It is not in the public interest to have an unregulated monopoly service that is inconveniently located for the many people in Dunoon and which would not deliver visitors to the centre of the town.
“To subordinate the needs of the community to give a further boost to the profits of Western Ferries is not an acceptable option.”


No sale, but Pan Fish “Here to Stay”
The planned sale of Pan Fish Scotland to Scottish Sea Farms’ owners Norskott Havbruk has been called off.
Owner of Pan Fish Scotland, Marine Harvest, had agreed last December to sell the company, in order to comply with a ruling by the French competition authorities following the merger between Pan Fish and Fjord Seafood.
The proposed deal, announced in May, would have created the second largest salmon farming company in Scotland, after Marine Harvest itself. Norskott Havbruk were looking to enter into an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares in Pan Fish Scotland for a figure of £70m.
Pan Fish Scotland, which produced around 16,000 tonnes of salmon in 2006, has 31 sea sites from Loch Eriboll in north-west Sutherland to Loch Fyne, as well as a number of freshwater sites, two hatcheries and a processing facility at Cairndow. With around 170 employees, and a good many of these based in Argyll, the firm is a major employer locally.
A spokesperson for Pan Fish Scotland said: “The sale was called off as a mutual decision between Marine Harvest and Norskott Havbruk. The sale was a very complicated process from a legal point of view, and despite working together on this, it was eventually decided that there just wasn’t a solution there to suit both parties.
The most likely route for Pan Fish Scotland will now be a public flotation on the Norwegian stock exchange, in all probability by the end of the year, which has always been an option for the company should no sale take place.
Pan Fish Scotland is keen to allay any fears in Argyll, with their spokesperson adding: “We are aware that there is concern locally, and this is understandable.
It is very much business as usual, and this should not be regarded as any kind of disaster. Pan Fish Scotland is here to stay.”