How to raise a complaint against the Town Clerk - who is their manager?

Question

I tried to raise a complaint recently about how, in my voluntary role as a Town Cryer, I had been treated. The Town Cleark completely dismissed both my request for a face-to-face meeting to discuss my concerns and did not respond to my request for how I make a formal complaint. I contacted the CEO of the Council and was told it is not his responsibility to get involved and it is up to the Town Clerk to resolve any issues relating to The Mayor's office, so I am back to square one. It is all brushed under the carpet and my concerns and complaint disregarded. I would appreciate it if anyone can let me know who the line manager of a Town Clerk would be. Thanks very much in advance.

Answer 1

You could try standing outside the council building and cry OH YEY OH YEH, WHO DO I MAKE A COMPLAINT ABOUT THE CLERK TO.

I'm sure someone would answer the answer the question fairly quickly.

The clerks employer is the council as a whole, so you could try and make a complaint to the council. As it is about the clerk maybe bypass the clerk and make it directly to the chair/mayor.

Comments

Thanks so much for your reply, really helpful.

Answer 2

If you have a personal contractual relationship with the Council, employment law would consider you to be an employee, albeit unpaid. The Council should have a grievance procedure for employees, so you may wish to submit a grievance under that policy.

If the Council has adopted the model standing orders, there is a paragraph (19d in the current model) that sets out the grievance process as follows:

"Subject to the Council’s policy regarding the handling of grievance matters, the Council’s most senior member of staff (or other members of staff) shall contact the chairman of the Council in respect of an informal or formal grievance matter, and this matter shall be reported back and progressed by resolution of the Council."

The Clerk's line manager would normally be the Staffing Committee of the Council, so any complaint should be submitted to the Chair of that Committee.

Details of all of the above policies and procedures should be published on the Council's website.

Comments

Thanks so much for responding to my question, the information was really helpful.