The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s revamp of its policy
and administration department, which includes the PR function, is to
come under attack by public sector union Unison.
Unison’s assistant branch secretary at the council, David Whittaker,
said the union had ’received complaints from members in the area’ about
procedures surrounding the appointment of the council’s new head of PR,
Carol McMahon, who was brought in to fill the post earlier this
autumn.
McMahon was appointed after the council changed the job description of
the orginal communications role, which it had created earlier in the
year and failed to fill.
As part of the changes, the scope of the role was trimmed back from a
mixture of PR and marketing to pure PR, slotting in above the press
office.
The matters will be taken to a council member and staff joint committee
which includes the senior management, members and the union on 14
December.
Hammersmith and Fulham mayor Andrew Slaughter told PR Week he believed
the council had followed its recruitment and restructuring procedures to
the letter.
