Shame on East Cambs Council for using staff on ‘zero-hour’ contracts

ANOTHER great front page last week - side by side we see council workers on ‘zero hours contracts’ and Jim Paice, a well-paid MP, taking on a lucrative new part-time job at First Milk.

Shame on this Tory MP whose track record includes removing all pay and conditions protection from low paid agricultural workers. The phrase “I’m all right Jack” springs to mind.

And shame on the council for those unfair, exploitative contracts. Surely our council, like every other local employer, should treat workers with respect and support our local economy, not squeeze the life out of it by imposing poverty wages.

I think this is what Lis Every means when she writes about ‘more efficient partners with lower running costs’ (Ely Standard, August 8).

We all know this is code for ‘squeeze the workers’ - until they can only survive by claiming tax credits to top up poverty wages.

Thus private companies aka ‘partners’ make bigger profits for their bosses and shareholders which taxpayers pay for as usual.

Meanwhile, our doorsteps and pavements are soon to be crowded with two new wheelie bins and the same old black bags for refuse - easily torn open by any passing rodent or fox.

Yes, we all want weekly refuse collections, but what will a wheelie full of food and garden waste smell like after fortnight in the summer? Is this the best we can do?

Finally, the southern bypass: an improvement of this kind to the national infrastructure should be paid for nationally, not by the people of East Cambs, whose local services would thereby be better protected from deep cuts.

JANE FRANCES

Ely East by-election Labour candidate

Via e-mail