Fury as cash-strapped county council spends £2,000 on specially branded tea
A £2,000 campaign to send packets of specially-made 'County Hall tea' to council staff has been condemned by employees who face large pay cuts.
The Northamptonshire County Council-branded tebags and mugs were sent out to council buildings across the county this week, and have triggered a range of criticism.
The promotional teabags invited people to 'stew over the council's low carbon mission' as part of a drive to reduce the authority's carbon footprint.
But union leaders who are currently comforting thousands of staff who face drops in their wages because of a pay review, labelled the tea gimmick "inappropriate" as the teabags cost 690 while the mugs cost 1,291.
The secretary of the Northamptonshire branch of Unison, Steve Bennett, said: "That kind of money is what some of our teaching assistants are going to be losing in a year.
"It's money like that which could have been used to help somebody pay their mortgage.
"I think people are more likely to stew about that than anything else."
The Chron revealed earlier this month that more than 4,000 council staff will lose money from April 1, 2011 as part of the pay review.
So far, a number of workers have said their pay will fall by thousands of pounds and some have threatened strike action.
But a spokesman for the authority said the tea stunt was designed to encourage staff to think about the environment, not cause offence.
He said: "The teabags have been produced to help market a competition which invites entrepreneurs to help the council reduce its carbon footprint and cut energy costs.
"They were paid for by savings already made from the council's carbon reduction project."
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