A council has come under fire for ‘political correctness gone mad’ after banning childcare workers from being given Christmas presents from appreciative families.
The new policy is part of a new blanket crackdown in the City of Yarra, Melbourne to help stop bribery and kickbacks to staff and came into effect this week.
‘It’s political correctness gone mad. If they want to fix governments, go and fix the real issues,’ Yarra Residents Collective co-founder Adam Promnitz told 3AW Melbourne.
‘Don’t go and punish the lowest paid workers.
Mr Promnitz said the blanket ban on council workers and workplaces was ‘craziness’ and that commonsense should prevail.
An n council has come under fire for ‘political correctness gone mad’ after banning childcare workers from being given Christmas presents from appreciative families (stock image)
‘All we want is to say thanks to our teachers with a small token of appreciation,’ Yarra Residents Collective co-founder Adam Promnitz said (stock image)
‘It’s a new low. The people looking after our kids don’t have any decision-making powers.
‘Childcare educators – they’re not making planning decisions, they’re not the ones who are awarding $10 million contractors to developers.
‘All we want is to say thanks to our teachers with a small token of appreciation.’
Mr Promnitz said the council will take any presents received by childcare workers and donate them to charities on the gift-givers’ behalf.
He posted to Yarra Resident Collective’s Facebook page that giving a gift to a teacher is part of an Aussie Christmas tradition and it helps to teach children values.
‘They [the council] really are the grinches who stole Christmas.’
Yarra City Council chief executive officer Sue Wilkinson told Daily Mail the council is grateful their staff are so highly regarded and know some parents are disappointed with their stance.
‘We are extremely proud of all of our staff who have done an amazing job all year for our community,’ she said.
‘Many of our staff have regulatory and compliance responsibilities and the policy aims to protect our staff from risks around perceived corruption or impropriety.
The City of Yarra has confirmed any gifts received by staff will be donated to charities in the Yarra area
‘We want our community to have confidence that all our staff act with integrity at all times and that is why a consistent approach across our workforce is taken.
‘Whilst we are humbled by the kindness and support from our community, unfortunately we cannot accept gifts, although well meaning.’
Ms Wilkinson confirmed any gifts received by staff will be donated to charities in the Yarra area.
The gift policy was changed after Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission released its final report of its five-year investigation into local government earlier this year.
They found the developer John Woodman had given suburban councillors hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for project support.
As a result the watchdog for local councils, Local Government Inspectorate, issued advice to councils on how they should create better policies.
The blanket ban on gifts came into effect this week and applies to all council workers in the City of Yarra
City of Yarra councillor Stephen Jolly told The Age whilst he supported tighter policies for councillors, he believed banning childcare workers from Christmas presents was ‘ludicrous and heavy handed’.
Mr Jolly is trying to get the decision overturned and has taken the issue to the council’s head of governance.
‘It’s collective punishment,’ he said.
‘How is giving a mince tart at Christmas-time to a childcare or kindergarten worker, who’s on the lowest pay and has looked after your kid all year, bribery or potentially corruption?
3AW radio personality Tom Elliott said the council’s move isn’t that surprising, given they have appointed a person to ‘look after flags and they have a bin tax’.
But he too was left wondering how giving a Christmas present to a childcare worker could ever be interpreted as something sinister.
‘On what basis could a gift to the kindergarten teacher be considered a bribe?’ he said.
‘What? You get more plasticine than the other kids? You get to play baby Jesus in the Christmas play?’