Liverpool reveals who decided floor plans in the new Administrative Building
- Details
- Published: Friday, 13 December 2024 11:54
The great mystery of this is why it would be a secret, or why people would lie about it in the first place. We covered this briefly in the August issue, there had been no consultation with staff about what they needed in their new workspaces even though an Acting Chief People Officer had rejected our requests for evidence of the consultation, asserting that “extensive consultation with staff from the inception of the project to completion” had taken place. That was a lie, and for our members there was no feedback at all about what was being proposed in the move to the new Administrative Centre.
The Council stone-walled, refusing our requests to explain why there hadn’t been consultation, and who had made the decisions - particularly on the ninth floor - to install what became known as “dining tables,” which some anonymous boofheads had decided would seat eight people. This is how the shared tables for eight were pictured:
This image was clearly not to scale. On-site the double computer screens were one continuous barrier from one end of the table to the other, the height of continuous screens meant you couldn’t see the other poor hapless colleagues on the other side of the table, there were issues about connectivity and cabling, the table legs were too monstrous to leave room for people to get their legs under the table and stretch out, people were effectively shoulder to shoulder.
Misleading at the very least, and a hoax at the worst, but these were the drawings upon which the Liverpool City Place Project Control Group made the decision to approve the floor plan on the ninth floor where compliance and members would be working. It was a farce.
In the end, the Acting CEO refused to respond at all, we lodged a GIPA application on 27 June seeking evidence from the Council about when this decision had been made and by whom. Our application was refined in discussions with the Council’s Access to Information Officer on 25 July and the process began.
Clearly the Access to Information Officer was having trouble finding evidence of decision-making but on 27 November, four months after our request was made, some heavily redacted documents were provided. The Council will now also make them available for public access.
Now we know that on 22 June 2023, the Liverpool City Place Project Control Group adopted the fit-out proposed by the developer subject only to funding from the Council. The group included the former CEO (the most recent of the 10 CEOs sacked by the Mayor over an eight year period), and all the directors or acting directors, including some who have said they had no choice at the meeting, although the minutes don’t note that!
The reaction of staff to the requirement to work under these unacceptable conditions prompted the Acting CEO to abandon all the shared desks and tables and provide individual seating/standing desks for everyone. We have no idea what happened to the furniture that had been installed to allow the replacement at some considerable, and undisclosed cost. All because they hadn’t consulted.
As a bonus for our persistence, because the Council couldn’t respond to the GIPA request by the required date under the legislation, depa is entitled to a refund of our $30 application fee!
It was never a big deal, we knew someone had to have decided it, but no one wanted to confess. No wonder there is a Public Enquiry into that Council to try to get to the bottom of how it really functions.