Borders council staff awarded day off for pandemic efforts

Scottish Borders Council has awarded staff a day off in recognition of efforts during the pandemic

Council staff in the Scottish Borders have been given a day off work to recognise their efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic.

If it is not practical for a staff member to take a wellbeing day off, they will receive a financial reward instead.

The move is estimated to cost the council more than £300,000.

Council leader Mark Rowley said it was right for the council to recognise the "incredible response" of staff.

He said: "The pandemic has possibly been the defining time of many of our lifetimes. Front-line staff were at risk and worked through it.

"Our bins were collected, our streets were safe, our roads were repaired and council carried on as normal and carried on in an extraordinary way in getting out support to communities that really needed it, especially in the early days of the pandemic when things were restricted.

"Council colleagues got out £80m to businesses that helped them survive and you have to remember that our council employees are also local residents and they were impacted by Covid in exactly the same way."

'Forgotten heroes'

Last week a report to councillors said staff had shown themselves to be flexible and committed to delivering services.

A range of actions were considered but the additional day off emerged as the preferred option.

The council has been warned that doing nothing to recognise staff efforts could see an "adverse reaction from employees and trade unions".

Councillor Harry Scott added: "All the council employees have shown great flexibility and I thought when all the plaudits were quite rightly being handed out to the NHS at a previous meeting that our binmen were our forgotten heroes because if they hadn't kept on working we'd have been drowning in our own filth.

"These are people that had to go to work and be in contact with each other, in similar position to people who had to work in supermarkets."

Story provided by local democracy reporter Paul Kelly.