By Gordon Berry

PLANNING OFFICIALS working with Fife Council have been offered free lunchtime massages as part of a series of sessions held in several locations throughout the region.

The issue has been raised by an employee in Cupar’s County Buildings who has questioned the cost and the justification for a scheme which is apparently being paid for “out of the pockets of council tax payers.”

The Courier has obtained information which shows that development services staff throughout Fife have been taking part in the sessions provided by Allyson Baird, of Nature Cures.

A notice in County Buildings makes it clear that under the “employee health and well-being” scheme, staff are allowed to book free onsite massages in 15 minute slots between noon and 2pm.

The sessions began on November 14 at Brunton House in Cowdenbeath, then continued in Cupar, Forth House in Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline Business Centre. The final massage sessions will take place on Thursday in Fife House.

The scheme also involved a taster session in work-life balance NLP (neuro linguistic programming) under practitioner Abbie Patrick, who uses “tried and tested techniques enabling you to deal more effectively with the stresses of daily life.”

Garry Dickson, a team leader in development services, said, “Promoting health at work provides benefits such as improvements to staff morale and providing an example to other organisations to take employee well-being seriously.”

He added that the cost of the massage sessions was a total of £300 for the five-day programme, and because staff attended during their own lunch break, there was no additional wages cost.

In relation to the work-life balance workshops, he said, the cost was £147, making the total cost of the two-week initiative £447.

“We would consider that the cost to the service has been minimal and is part of an ongoing programme which has seen the service’s sickness absence reduce by 36% in the last two years.

“It is significantly less than the cost that the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) calculated an average organisation in the UK spends on sickness absence: £588 per employee each year.”

He said an initial review indicated the sessions were well attended, and a full review will take place over the next few weeks to help the service decide on the best way forward for its employee well-being strategy.

Yesterday the leader of the council’s Tory group, Mike Scott-Hayward, was scathing of the way the scheme had been handled.

“As far as I know this has not been discussed or approved by councillors. It appears that it must have been given the go-ahead by bureaucrats who should be responsible to elected members,” he said.