Parker apologises over luxury job “embarrassment”

Monday 01 April 2019

Government Chief Executive Charlie Parker has apologised to States Members for the “embarrassment” caused by an unauthorised job advert offering “five-star accommodation” mistakenly being posted online.

In an email sent yesterday evening, which has been shared with Express, Mr Parker said he took “ultimate responsibility” for what he described as a “serious error."

The advert for a £500 to £550-a-day ‘Agenda for Change specialist’ was posted on UK recruitment site Network HR on Friday.

Pictured: The advert on Network HR. 

Despite only being live for hours before government officials requested its removal, it was spotted by islanders who questioned why it appeared that the ‘OneGov’ job evaluation role was only being advertised in the UK, as well as the benefits listed alongside it.

“The role will be based from the organisation's headquarters in Jersey Monday – Thursday with flights, luxury 5 star accommodation, food and drink fully expensed. You will then be home based on a Friday,” the job description read.

“Due to the flexibility of travel arrangements this means that the successful candidate can reside anywhere providing you are able to get to a main airport Monday morning and return from their [sic] Thursday evening.” 

Government officials later clarified that the agency had posted the advert, whose description was based on a different private sector role, before receiving approval, adding that it was also their intention to use local firms to recruit.

Pictured: The Government of Jersey, which is based in Broad Street, said that it would also use local firms to recruit.

Yesterday evening, the government’s most senior employee, Chief Executive Charlie Parker, wrote to politicians to “outline the background to the incident and apologise for any embarrassment that this may have caused to States Members and the States Employment Board."

In his email, Mr Parker said that the listed benefits had “rightly caused anger” among members of the public, stating: “For the record, our policy for contract workers engaged by the Government from off-island is quite straight forward. Flights and accommodation, on a bed-and-breakfast basis, is booked for them directly via the Government’s travel and accommodation supplier, HRG, where negotiated, discounted, contract rates are used with accommodation providers.”

Explaining that the advert had been posted without the government’s “permission or sign-off”, he added: “Clearly it was a serious error on their part not to follow the approved sign-off arrangements, and the Director of People Services is discussing this further with the agency tomorrow.”

In addition, he said that the Director would be writing “to all recruitment agencies, on and off island, with whom we currently have a relationship, confirming the current policy and the requirement for any advertisement, through any channel, to be cleared with the Head of Resourcing."

Pictured: Broad Street, the site of the Government's new headquarters, where the role was said to be based.

Mr Parker also appeared to take aim at the media for the “embarrassment”, stating: “The fact that this advertisement appeared at all, and the way it described travel, accommodation and subsistence, is a strong media story, and it is understandable that they have run with it – even though they know that it was an error that was not of our making.”

“Finally, I would like to reiterate that this appears to be an unfortunate error, which has created an embarrassment for States Members and SEB, for which I take ultimate responsibility and I apologise to all States Members,” he concluded.