Good Week Overshadowed By Bad News Re: Mum's Job
By Janey1966
@Janey1966 (24170)
Carlisle, England
April 17, 2011 6:48pm CST
Last Sunday John took me to see Mum and Dad and I stayed with them for a week. All was well (getting out and about) until Thursday when Mum received a letter from the Human Resources Section of the Local Authority she works for..
In the letter it stated that her request for working beyond her 65th birthday has been "rejected" and her employment with the Council will terminate on August 16th 2011.
Her birthday is actually in June but it's a long story why they mention August instead.
Now, a few weeks ago she signed a form saying she wanted to work beyond her 65th birthday and at the bottom of the form was a space for her boss to say "Yay" or "Nay" to her request. Mum does not know the outcome of this as the form was posted on internally to her boss..and no-one wants to commit themselves as to what happened in that regard.
Understandably, Mum was upset. She has worked for Blackpool Council since 1974 when she started (part-time) as a dinner-lady. She became Unit Catering Manager about 12 years ago and is well-respected for her fairness amongst ladies who work for her and the fact she's hardly been off sick the whole time she has been there.
Mum reckons she can "get" the Council on one aspect of her "sacking" (as she puts it) and that is the fact that Steve, the main man, told her over the telephone that the letter should NOT have been sent out and a meeting was to be held in May of ALL ladies who were coming up to their 65th birthdays.
Why is all this significant? Well, come October anyone who is 65 CANNOT be got rid of and can carry on working (if they so wish) without being hassled to retire. Because Mum falls in this earlier bracket she is being targetted..and she's not happy. If her birthday was next year she would not be targetted in this way.
My cousin Jill has a fixed term contract which will not be renewed next year PLUS a lady called Diane I worked with is also being made redundant after 28 years of working for the Council. It seems all the best people are being sacked.
Some would argue that it's right that someone aged 65 should retire and that's that..give someone younger a chance. I would go along with this if Mum actually wanted to go! She told me the other day that the job makes her "feel alive" and she loves having all these young kids around her, making her feel younger. They adore her too, addressing her by her first name.
The fact of the matter is; the kitchen cannot run WITHOUT a Unit Manager (or Cook as the job title once was) as Mum deals with working out the wages for the girls and ordering of the food stock. There is a lot involved in her job and no-one that's left can do it. The ONLY person that can do her job is a lady that went from Buffets (she got a substantial pay-out, ironically) and she has commented that she WOULD do Mum's job if she left.
So, it begs the question. Once Mum leaves do they put this Debbie in her place?
As far as money goes..once she is 65 she CANNOT receive redundancy money! That may be another reason why the Council wants rid.
She has 14 days in which to appeal and her mind is all over the place. My cousin Jill has already told her that Dad should be entitled to Attendance Allowance so I have printed the form off and will post it off for Jill to help Dad fill it in. Every little helps, right?
As far as Mum goes..where does she turn for help? She does not want to lose out financially. To be frank, the job itself had been getting on her nerves lately but she wants a proper settlement; something she feels she is entitled to after working for the Council nearly 40 years.
Do you know anyone who has been made redundant purely due to their age? What was the outcome?
Ageism is rife in this country and it's wrong.
Her birthday is actually in June but it's a long story why they mention August instead.
Now, a few weeks ago she signed a form saying she wanted to work beyond her 65th birthday and at the bottom of the form was a space for her boss to say "Yay" or "Nay" to her request. Mum does not know the outcome of this as the form was posted on internally to her boss..and no-one wants to commit themselves as to what happened in that regard.
Understandably, Mum was upset. She has worked for Blackpool Council since 1974 when she started (part-time) as a dinner-lady. She became Unit Catering Manager about 12 years ago and is well-respected for her fairness amongst ladies who work for her and the fact she's hardly been off sick the whole time she has been there.
Mum reckons she can "get" the Council on one aspect of her "sacking" (as she puts it) and that is the fact that Steve, the main man, told her over the telephone that the letter should NOT have been sent out and a meeting was to be held in May of ALL ladies who were coming up to their 65th birthdays.
Why is all this significant? Well, come October anyone who is 65 CANNOT be got rid of and can carry on working (if they so wish) without being hassled to retire. Because Mum falls in this earlier bracket she is being targetted..and she's not happy. If her birthday was next year she would not be targetted in this way.
My cousin Jill has a fixed term contract which will not be renewed next year PLUS a lady called Diane I worked with is also being made redundant after 28 years of working for the Council. It seems all the best people are being sacked.
Some would argue that it's right that someone aged 65 should retire and that's that..give someone younger a chance. I would go along with this if Mum actually wanted to go! She told me the other day that the job makes her "feel alive" and she loves having all these young kids around her, making her feel younger. They adore her too, addressing her by her first name.
The fact of the matter is; the kitchen cannot run WITHOUT a Unit Manager (or Cook as the job title once was) as Mum deals with working out the wages for the girls and ordering of the food stock. There is a lot involved in her job and no-one that's left can do it. The ONLY person that can do her job is a lady that went from Buffets (she got a substantial pay-out, ironically) and she has commented that she WOULD do Mum's job if she left.
So, it begs the question. Once Mum leaves do they put this Debbie in her place?
As far as money goes..once she is 65 she CANNOT receive redundancy money! That may be another reason why the Council wants rid.
She has 14 days in which to appeal and her mind is all over the place. My cousin Jill has already told her that Dad should be entitled to Attendance Allowance so I have printed the form off and will post it off for Jill to help Dad fill it in. Every little helps, right?
As far as Mum goes..where does she turn for help? She does not want to lose out financially. To be frank, the job itself had been getting on her nerves lately but she wants a proper settlement; something she feels she is entitled to after working for the Council nearly 40 years.
Do you know anyone who has been made redundant purely due to their age? What was the outcome?
Ageism is rife in this country and it's wrong.6 responses
@OpinionatedLady (5965)
• United States
18 Apr 11
My mother too has had this happen in a way. Where she worked has a habit of "building" a case against it's workers starting about two years before eligible for retirement. The pick at little things, make changes to folly them up then when they have enough little things fire them. They took almost two years to build a case against my mother and they didn't do a good job. She is suing them over it and they immediately took it to settlement because they know they where caught. They will be paying her the pension they where trying to get out of paying by doing these deeds.
Good for her@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
18 Apr 11
It's good that your mother sued. Mum has told me she will sue if she doesn't get a decent pay-off. Her boss is terrified because Mum is an intelligent woman, especially for a dinner-lady lol. So, he will know more than anyone that Mum will do something because she's angry and upset. His vision of her being a "sweet little woman" will soon disappear when she starts to fight her corner...and she will win too. She's my Mum after all!
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
18 Apr 11
She is being retired because they can do. The firm that she submitted saying that she wants to stay after 65 is only a preference form and has no legal validity. It is simply a wish on her behalf. For a moment let me be very cruel. Mum has worked all these years with the expectation that she would retire at 65 which has been the normal retirement age for the Local Government Pension Scheme. She may not like the idea but that is the contract that she has had. Nothing has changed and her employer is asking her to honour her side of that contract.
However, the Government has moved the goalposts by removing the maximum working age for economic reasons. But not until after Mum reaches 65. She may be the best worker that they have. It may be desperately unfair. But the law allows them to do it and there is nothing in law that she can do about it. I imagine that Mum is at the maximum of her salary scale and it is cheaper for the Council to employ somebody else on a lower salary. If she retires now the Council saves her salary as the pension fund will pick up her costs from her retirement. If she stays the Council has to pay her instead. The Council is only interested in saving money and not employee effectiveness or loyalty. This sounds like an area ripe for outsourcing as well. personally I think that people should be allowed to work on on 12 month contract extensions. a line needs to be drawn somewhere however. At what age should she retire?
Mum should appeal and I hope that she does. I don't hold out much hope though. Until four years ago I was a senior HR manager and Head of Profession of a major Government department and am married to a Local Authority manager where similar rules to Blackpool's apply. Mum falls on, from her perspective, the wrong side of a fairly arbitrary age line. I hope that she makes a noise about this but from my experience, I have seen the rules applied to friends in a similar situation; I don't hold put much hope. Good luck to her anyway.
@p1kef1sh (45681)
•
18 Apr 11
I just looked up Blackpool's working beyond 65 rules here: http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/democracy/members/admin/files/16cf0a44-f3a1-4340-89de-193db4aae3e1/B1%20retirement.doc and it is pretty clear that the most that she can hope for is an extension to age 70. However, that might give her grounds to cite her inclusion in the new system after October. That is something that will be tested at Employment Tribunal I expect and is not something that they will want to risk. Once rejected I notice that there is no right of appeal.
I should also say that one of the reasons that I no longer work in HR is that I hated the fact that we has become entirely the enforcement agents for increasingly desperate politicians. There was no fun in the job, just slog. Whilst that wasn't my major reason for going. It was a factor nevertheless.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
18 Apr 11
Unfortunately for Mum, it's a complicated story regarding her Pension. For some time she wasn't paying enough into it through no fault of her own so she's only been paying the extra since going full-time in her Unit Manager's job. She told me that if the Pension had been what it SHOULD be she wouldn't be upset about being "potted" as she calls it. All she needs is another 2 years I think she said.
In the letter she was told she can appeal the decision but it doesn't tell her how to go about it (not surprisingly) but I have sent her an Attendance Allowance form that my cousin will help Dad fill in. It's funny how some people know the system and others don't. For all those claiming benefits they shouldn't be on there will be a whole load more who SHOULD be on them but (either) can't be bothered looking into it or they just don't realise they're entitled to something. Dad falls in the latter category.
I'm really shocked about my friend Diane too. She's only just won a promotion (possibly due to her boss retiring last year, I'm not sure) and this is how she's treated.
Even if I'd got myself a job in Carlisle I reckon I'd be out of it by now, judging by how savage the cuts are. In my opinion that's the way to do it...last in, first out. No doubt offices around the country will have ones left on the biggest salaries..they will make sure they don't lose their jobs whilst the ones doing the most work (including Mum) get shafted. It will be the same in the NHS once cuts come into play there too.
@derek_a (10873)
•
19 Apr 11
It's very bad luck for you Mum to miss the change in the law in this way. I can fully understand her love of her job and her annoyance at the way they are avoiding redundancy payment. There are times when I have felt so angry too at the changes in the law, and it seems that there is nothing can be done. It seems that contracts of employment that were agreed at the beginning when somebody takes a job, are not worth the paper they are written on any more, but who has the knowledge or finance to challenge this? Through meditation, I am managing to become more detached from what it happening. I hope your Mum gets a favourable outcome. 
_Derek
_Derek@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
19 Apr 11
Thanks Derek.
I shall ring her up tonight like I usually do on a Tuesday and find out if she's been ringing anybody important that can help her out. I think she's realising there's not a lot she can do about them finishing her BUT receiving no money after nearly 40 years (apart from her Pension that she has missed out on due to not enough going in that no-one failed to mention to her) is something she cannot stomach, and I would fight too if I were in her shoes.
It really stinks living in this country at times. I'm not surprised you meditate.
Deep breaths..deep breaths!!
I shall ring her up tonight like I usually do on a Tuesday and find out if she's been ringing anybody important that can help her out. I think she's realising there's not a lot she can do about them finishing her BUT receiving no money after nearly 40 years (apart from her Pension that she has missed out on due to not enough going in that no-one failed to mention to her) is something she cannot stomach, and I would fight too if I were in her shoes.
It really stinks living in this country at times. I'm not surprised you meditate.
Deep breaths..deep breaths!! @Hatley (163772)
• Garden Grove, California
18 Apr 11
hi I also was fired only because I was almost 80 and the second in
command a real bitach did not want an elderly woman on her staff.
well headquarters learned I had been fired for being old and fired
the two fire -ers.They cannot fire a person solely because of age.Ironically I had just fallen and brokemy shoulder necessitating me to have a shoulder joint replacement so since I could not lift things anyh longer with my left arm I could not take advantage of their offet to let me come back.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
18 Apr 11
Awww, hiya Hatley! Unfortunately, the Public Sector here has found a loophole as the rules governing the 65 year olds won't come into effect until October. However, they've gone about it all wrong as Human Resources are incompetent. The letter they have sent will be the catalyst in Mum's case as it shouldn't have been sent in the first place. Mum's boss actually admitted this, silly man that he is lol.
You are right, age shouldn't come into it. If Mum was rubbish at her job I could understand it but she isn't. In fact, she's the best Unit Manager on School Dinners as she's brilliant at the paperwork side of things. If they do replace her they will have a job on their hands finding someone as efficient.
I feel like making a placard and marching, I really do!!
Unfortunately, the Public Sector here has found a loophole as the rules governing the 65 year olds won't come into effect until October. However, they've gone about it all wrong as Human Resources are incompetent. The letter they have sent will be the catalyst in Mum's case as it shouldn't have been sent in the first place. Mum's boss actually admitted this, silly man that he is lol.
You are right, age shouldn't come into it. If Mum was rubbish at her job I could understand it but she isn't. In fact, she's the best Unit Manager on School Dinners as she's brilliant at the paperwork side of things. If they do replace her they will have a job on their hands finding someone as efficient.
I feel like making a placard and marching, I really do!!
@changjiangzhibin89 (17239)
• China
19 Apr 11
Haven't seen your artical for several days.It seems that your visiting your family was as much joyment as concern.I understand your Mum's feelings completely.She has been with the Council for nearly 40 years ,all is well and she enjoys great popularity.It goes without saying that once she retires from job,she will certainly feel as if something were missing ,but it will heal over with time.She must keep fit,doesn't take such thing to heart frequently.What I don't see is why "come October anyone who is 65 cann't be got rid of...".Here,in general,retirement age:man 60;woman 50.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
19 Apr 11
Well, the government brought in this new law recently that states that you don't necessarily have to retire when you are 65..but only for those whose birthday is from October onwards as that's when the law is coming in. If it had come in immediately Mum would be fine but it didn't.
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