For the second year running, Fife Council has more staff suspended on full pay than any other Scottish local authority.
As of last November, 13 employees nearly half of them care workers were on so-called gardening leave.
In Angus, five members of staff were suspended and in Dundee four. At the same time in Perth and Kinross, a total of 12 staff members were on gardening leave.
The Fife figure represents a significant drop when compared to the previous year, when 25 members of staff had been suspended.
The shocking statistics have prompted Fife Labour’s finance spokesman Mark Hood to claim there is a lack of leadership at the council.
”The political leadership of Fife Council are sadly running around with blinkers on telling anyone that will listen just how good everything is, when actually we have big issues that need to be tackled,” he told The Courier.
”Staff, and indeed the communities across Fife, deserve better.”
Mr Hood added that while he was unable to comment on any specific cases it was worrying that there was a ”trend of Fife Council being up there amongst the poorest performers time and time again”.
”I have already highlighted our poor sickness levels which place us in 29th out of 32 for the worst sickness levels in Scottish local government and I have made clear that there is a real lack of political leadership to get behind these issues and find out what is going on,” he said.
But his comments provoked a furious backlash from depute leader, and HR spokeswoman, Elizabeth Riches, who accused Labour of clutching at straws with ”little idea of what they represent”.
Fife’s poor record was revealed as a snapshot of Scotland’s 32 local authorities showed that of last November there were at least 117 council workers on monthly salaries which totalled £209,000 waiting for their cases to be resolved.
It has been revealed that nearly half of the 13 suspensions involved Fife Council care staff and around a third are related to occupations covering roads and street cleansing.
”There are some occupational factors and risks associated with service delivery that have to be taken into account and which are not necessarily present in all councils,” said Fife Council’s HR services manager, Linda Frew.
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”The 13 suspensions represent 0.06 percent of our workforce and is a considerable reduction from the 25 suspensions of the previous year.”
Ms Frew said the council was well aware of the importance of managing these issues in a robust, fair and transparent way and the decision to suspend an employee was never taken lightly.
”There are a number of reasons why some suspensions can take time to resolve police issues, availability of witnesses, illness,” she said.”Every effort is made to conclude the matter as soon as is reasonable.”
Ms Frew added that monitoring arrangements are in place to ensure cases are progressed and reports made to the joint negotiation and consultation forum, which includes elected members and trade union members.
The last report was presented last September and a further update is due next month.
”Early analysis shows there is a shift in numbers from the previous period,” she said. ”We will continue to work proactively to minimise the length of time people are suspended, but we will maintain the integrity and robustness of our policy and procedure and consider the risks on a case-by-case basis.”
Councillor Riches added that the administration continued to work closely with unions over the matter and criticised Labour for not attending the last forum.
”We are open and transparent about our figures and discussed them at the forum in September. We know how important it is to carry out investigations as quickly as possible, while being thorough and fair.
”Once again Labour were not represented. If they had been present they would be aware that a further monitoring report is due to be presented to the next meeting.
”I look forward to discussing the paper with the trade unions and hope that Labour will see fit to contribute rather than criticise from the side lines,” she added. ”Our staff need to be supported in a fair and firm manner by all councillors and not used as a political football.”
A spokeswoman at Perth and Kinross Council pointed out that all suspensions are ”subject to regular review”.
”Suspensions take place only for as long as is deemed necessary and their duration varies depending on the particular circumstances of each case,” she said.
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