Union anger over council's pep talks at £50 a head

ONE of Scotland's largest councils has been rebuked for spending taxpayers' money on buying the services of a motivational guru for employees of small businesses.

Glasgow City Council is to pay up to 50 a head for firms in the city to send demoralised employees to see Jack Black, the former Easterhouse social worker who has been running motivational events for more than 20 years.

Typical ticketed events hosted by multi-millionaire Black and his firm Mindstore attract hundreds of corporate delegates who pay more than 650 for two-day sessions focused on positive thinking techniques.

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The one-day seminar in Glasgow, scheduled for later this month, costs 120 per head, but small businesses or members of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce will be able to attend for 50, paid by the council out of its pot for business development grants.

The biggest room in the Glasgow Thistle hotel, where the event will be held, will accommodate 900 in Mindstore's preferred banqueting-suite format, leaving Glasgow council with a potential bill of 45,000.

The public sector union Unite said the money would be better spent on safeguarding jobs. A Unite spokeman said: "If they are investing sums of money in this motivational speaker quite frankly we would rather see the money directed to staff who face difficult conditions now.

"The money could be used more effectively to keep people in jobs. I'd rather be looking at things like that rather than some psychobabble telling people how to live their lives and motivating them to do so. The most important motivation for the workers in Glasgow city council right now is being sure their jobs are safe."

A council spokesman declined to confirm how much was earmarked for the subsidies and did not confirm how many tickets it expected to sell.He said: "GCC has partnered with the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce to offer Glasgow-based companies the opportunity to attend motivational speaker Jack Black's 'Time for Positive Change' event. Usually this type of event is normally only available to large corporations."

Jack Black said the number of tickets sold could not be confirmed until closer to the date of the event on 15 June.

The event is not the first time public money has gone into supporting one of Jack Black's sessions.

In March, Black held a motivational seminar for more than 2,000 Glasgow children and university students at the Royal Concert Hall, an "experiment" designed to counteract what organisers believe is an "endemic lack of confidence in Glasgow".The event was sponsored by quango the Clyde Gateway, entrepreneur Satty Singh, the JR Group, Hampden Cabs and the city council owned-City Building Glasgow.

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The subsidy was defended by Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, who said: "This discount is a plus as it will make the event more accessible to those smaller businesses who may be having financial problems at this time and who will benefit most from what Jack Black and Mindstore have to offer.

"Jack Black spoke at our recent BigSmall Business Event, and I thought he was inspirational. This is another opportunity for our members to hear him speak and to qualify for a 50 per cent discount from Glasgow City Council if they fulfil the conditions."

Black, who said his business has "never been busier," said: "Most of my work is done with large corporates. I very rarely get a chance to work with SMEs because they can't afford the fees, which is understandable. Glasgow City Council and the chamber could see the value in doing something with them, so they have pulled it together to sponsor the thing, which is fantastic.

"In the corporate world people are experiencing a difficult market place and there is fear about the future. If big corporates are asking me in to lift people's morale and believe they can find a way through this, then for SMEs this must be multiplied much more. If I can help them it just makes sense."

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