Another way of improving the morale of our hard working and under appreciated court staff...
(Mind you, I thought for a minute when I read the title that we were back on the bikkie shortage!! :-) )
I take it that they get 6 weeks money at the end of the month...
SLJP - you are just reopening an old wound aren't you?
Anyway, it's not a shortage, it's a dearth. An absence. A nullity. A famine.
They have big tins of chocolate ones at Brent.
Oh the poor, poor babies. Welcome to the real world! You want to try being a landlord in receipt of housing benefit payments in respect of tenants where the money can stop at the local authority's whim without any warning whatsoever - sometimes for months!!!!
What???? You don't get biscuits???
How strange, we get a tray for each retiring room, and a very nice lady comes and gives us tea and coffee.
Oh, we also get served a very nice 2 course lunch.
But I couldn't possibly tell you where I'm from, as you lot might come and pinch all the biccies :)
Aside: Is your clock wrong?
Bikkies AND LUNCH!! I'm shocked, nay appalled...(any vacancies on your bench absquat???) Are you sneakily in another jurisdiction altogether (I've always rather fancied a nice Magistrates Court in Oz...) :-)
OOh, and yes, the clock does seem out cos I just posted that at 12.40...
I've posted before that our bench gets an excellant biscuit supply. Plentiful and varied! Your average JP needs biscuits to sustain him/her over the course of a day.
Move to Hertfordshire for bikkie fuelled Justice at its' best.
We have, however, to make our own tea and coffee!
Tea lady? Lunch?
Surely not.
Bystander's is the only bench in the UK that doesn't get biscuits though.
David Button - although I can see your point of view, and it was my first reaction, it must be a real problem if you are on a tight budget, not to mention the buggeration of having to change direct debit dates etc.
Being paid a salary for a job on a regular and timely date should be a given. The risks associated with owning and letting property are great, but the rewards can be great also. If they are not for you, you're in the wrong game.
If anyone's clock is wrong, it's probably Blogger's, which may not have noticed that while North America has moved to summer time, the EU has not.
I do have back up plans of course and if I want biccies with my break, IK have to buy them myself!!!!
Did once go to a HB landlord clawback appeal - was kept waiting over 2 hours past notified time whilst the nice officers and councillors had their coffee and biscuits fetched in whilkst I wasnt offered a drink of bloody water even!!!!!!!!!! The mood I was in when I finally got into the room and sarcastically asked if they had enjoyed their refreshments at my expense.............!!!!!
No it does cover their blunders with the listings and etc.
Fine them two weeks pay every year for such blunders.
Hope all's well with you.
I'm struck, whenever I read this column, with the notion of England being a very multi-layered place.
As a public sector worker, I find it hard to contemplate what it's like to be a landlord to people on HB.
It is an opportunity (maybe) to help out, offer a leg up and balance the books at the same time. I imagine councils can be very tricky customers indeed, however.
Here's to our Loyal Hard-Working Court Staff anyway.
I remember one time in Newbury Magistrates, a member of the Team there "dispatched" a reluctant pheasant that had strayed through an open window. It would have been on the same day a sturdy woman COC asked a tramp fine defaulter to turn out his pockets and "Pay up"
Its a hard world indeed !
JVIP
"As a public sector worker, I find it hard to contemplate what it's like to be a landlord to people on HB" Really, I used to be a local government officer and only a few of my tenants are on HB.
Why do you find it hard to contemplate? I built my own business up while handling a 9 to 5 job, a college course and looking after an elderly mother AND managing not only my own properties but those of my uncle as well.
Hertfordshire? If the bickies are that good, it's worth becoming a JP. Now, where's that application form.
LOL...here here Vic. I was actually thinking the same thing whilst reading the Biccie debate...
I never knew that...
As the military put it: "All leave will be stopped until morale improves".
Surely they aren't that tight. HMCS must be paying 2 weeks money at the end of the month and then every month-end. They can't really be making staff wait 6 weeks before the next payday? Can they?
That's it, Mango. Previously they were paid for the whole month of May on the 15th. Now it's the 31st, so when the new arrangement started the staff had to wait 6 weeks for their pay. Not a big deal in the scheme of things, but an unnecessary bit of Scroogery.
Ah, I see. So previously they were paid two weeks in arrears and two weeks (or so) in advance.
But now they're paid in arrears.
I guess this is to tie in with other departments who are paid in arrears.
Sorry, I think it's a storm in a teacup. I'm guessing that they picked Feb/March to minimise the effect on the staff. It's a one off hit to make life easier for the bean counters
I agree.
The Biscuit Situation however is a REAL live issue.
At least they only have to wait 6 weeks to be paid. HMCS is taking in excess of 10 weeks to pay magistrates' expenses in this neck of the backwoods.
Try being on a weekly wage and then, at the end of the first week, told that pay would be monthly (in arrears). Thanks to the MoD who gave no assistance at all to bank overdrafts, missed direct debits, etc. It obly gos to show you that if you work for local or national authorities, they can do what they like.
The loss of 15 days interest a month throughout a career is not such a small sum to the indiviuals concerned. Enough to buy a fair few biscuits anyway.
Maybe HMCS should now do the decent thing and put the extra dosh into a trust fund to keep magistrates and all staff (not just the Legal Advisers) in choccie biccies in perpetuity...
As neat a way as one would ever encounter of taking two week's pay from everybody!
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