Comment—Replacing the workforce

OUR Allen Richards makes the point that British Waterways directors are now faced with the challenge of convincing both workforce and public that staff will not be sacked simply to be replaced by volunteer labour.

Of course they will be sacked to be replaced with volunteer labour—that is patently obvious, and is why 'five volunteer managers to implement a training program for volunteers, ahead of its move into the charitable sector' have been appointed.  To do exactly that.

'National trust'

Reading between the lines of Press Releases that come out of BW relating to the new 'national trust'—and most now do—it is obvious that the business will depend more and more on volunteers,  and less and less on its staff, as in other Press Releases it bemoans the fact that owing to its reduction in grant, it 'unwillingly' has to sacrifice its staff.

So the result is very obvious indeed—it is cutting out the wages of its employees to replace them with unpaid volunteers.

Best people have left

But what of the waterways?  Ever since the present chief executive had his first 'relocation' of the waterway areas, many of the best people have left, refusing to be transferred to distant offices, and his second 'relocation' furthered the decline.  And now, the threat of redundancies must surely make the remaining staff brutally aware of their tenuous positions.

Where will it all end?  With it seems the crucial work of the waterways left in the suspect hands of contractors, helped by a mob of mostly unreliable, incapable volunteers.

God help our waterways.

Tom Crossley