Quintin Jardine's blog

I heard a story today; true, but definitely no names, locations etc, and no pack drill. There’s this person who’s employed by an English local authority to do a certain job. Okay. As we all know, councils are under pressure to show economies, staff cuts etc. Suddenly, out of the blue, this person finds out that the job is being ‘out-sourced’, to use the buzz phrase. The person continues in the same role, but now has a private sector employer . . . a firm set up by the son of a member of the council that took the ‘outsourcing’ decision. The difference for the employee is that where the salary payments from the local authority always hit the bank on the due date, now they are regularly delayed, with all the potentially disastrous consequences for people managing a tight family budget, with mortgage and utility payments that can’t be delayed and the threat of crippling overdraft costs.

My first thought when I heard this? What Would the News of the World have done in its heyday with a story like that?