A Welsh politician with the highest turnover of staff in her office is facing fresh allegations from former employees who say they were left in tears working for her.
In November, a WalesOnline investigation revealed that Welsh Tory MS Janet Finch Saunders had a prolific turnover of staff having put up 22 job adverts in six years - eight more than any other MS. A former employee also told WalesOnline that the member for Aberconwy had “a complete lack of respect for boundaries”, which she vehemently denied. They also alleged that the treatment of staff was an “open joke” within the Conservative group, a claim denied by the group, who said that the accusations “aren’t recognised”.
WalesOnline has since been contacted by other former staff members of Ms Finch-Saunders. They described being left in tears and feeling humiliated and demeaned while working for her. One said she used taxpayer funded staff to do her Christmas shopping. They said they were angry the Conservative group had denied knowing about the allegations, saying they had raised the complaints directly with senior figures.
We put the new allegations to Ms Finch-Saunders, who said that she took the health and welfare of her staff "very seriously" and that in her 11 years in office she had "not been made aware of any official complaint about the working arrangements in my office”. In response to our earlier article she had blamed the "demanding" nature of the role serving the public for her high staff turnover.
We also put the allegations to the Conservative group, which said it would not be commenting further as the staffing arrangements were a matter for the individual MS and not for the group.
Read more: "The Welsh politician who constantly needs to find new people to work for her"
One of the former staffers, who we have called Becky to protect her identity, told WalesOnline: “I was fresh out of university. I was really excited. I was really enthusiastic about going to work at the Senedd and really wanted to make politics a career. And I definitely wouldn't want to do that now.
“I left that experience just feeling totally demeaned. I had no confidence, and had quite severe anxiety. After that period, I would go into work, and then just go home and go to bed. That was literally my life, it was pretty horrible.
Becky went on to allege that she felt Finch-Saunders “just had a total lack of boundaries. It got so bad that I would have to turn my phone off when I came in from work as I thought I might get a phone call at two in the morning.
“On a weekend, if she was upset about something, even if it was totally outside the scope of my role, perhaps something that another party member had said that was mean to her, she'd phone me to have a rant. Sometimes I would turn my phone off and she would speak to me when I was back at work and I would have to pretend I had no signal.
“I was on the taxpayers' money and on some occasions, at least three I can think of, I was asked to go into the centre of Cardiff to do her shopping for her. Seriously. That's just completely unacceptable that I was spending my work time buying her Christmas presents. On one occasion, I had to go and buy her a handbag.”
Another former staffer, Mary, (also not her real name) echoes Becky’s comments about feeling humiliated. Like many staff in the Senedd Mary was fresh out of university and her role with Janet was her first proper full time job.
“I always wanted to work in politics,” Mary said. “I had done some interning for other members and just wanted a job. I was so excited when I got the job. Like a lot of people who work for her I had just finished uni.
“After my first day, I went home crying, I wanted to quit day one and that is not my personality. I just felt humiliated. I got told I wasn't allowed to be on my phone, not that I would have been at work anyway. But she told me I had to lock my phone in a drawer.
“She would ring the constituency office and ask details that she could only have known if she had been there. I think she was watching the office camera. She would know details about what constituents looked like without being there.
“I had one colleague who was given so much work she had to stay late. But Janet would also tell her off if she stayed late so that colleagues would do the work in the dark so that Janet couldn’t see her on the cameras.”
Mary claims that staff would have to stick together to try and get through working with her. She added that she would be blamed for mistakes made by the MS herself.
She said: “It felt like ridiculous that you felt stupid even though she was the one who had made a mistake and yet you got the blame.
“When I saw her response to the previous article saying that people just couldn’t cope with the pressure I just found it so funny. There are so many times that you'd have look after other people in the office. You all have to have a sense of camaraderie.
People still joke about it. Even when life is hard now my mum will say ‘at least you are not still working for Janet. She'd call me sometimes on a Friday. She would always call after work hours, my heart would sink. I'd be so anxious. I would think 'what have I done wrong?' and it ruined my weekend. Obviously, it was my first job out of uni as well so I really cared about it.
“Oh my god, the amount of times I cried. It actually crushes you. I remember once she had forgotten something in the chamber and she made me run to get what she had forgotten so I had to take my shoes off to run. There was absolutely something everyday even when she was on holiday. She would call or ring from her break.
“I dreaded going into work. I used to feel sick. I just felt a sense of numbness. In the time I worked there I didn't do anything else for the rest of my life because I was just like, so emotionally drained.”
Jonathan was another former member of staff who contacted WalesOnline.
He said: “I didn’t have to ask to go to the loo,” he said. “I was allowed to go. But if she felt like you were taking too long she would ring you while you were on the loo. People ask why you didn’t pick up? You have to if you didn't pick up you got a bollocking.
“There were so many stupid rules. You had to put your mobile in the drawer when you were at work but if she called and you didn’t notice because it was in the drawer you would still get a bollocking.
“She took no responsibility for anything. Everything was our fault. There was never a day where there wasn't a problem.”
Jonathan said: "I did have depression. You'd always have a great sense of anxiety going into work and once that anxiety was gone I was very, very depressed for a long period of time. While I was working it was terrible because small little things were always big things in our office. You feel responsible for that, even though it wasn't your fault."
What really prompted all of these people to contact WalesOnline was the fact that they felt nothing had been done about the issue despite saying they had raised the concerns with multiple senior people within the group. The fact that the group issued a statement saying they “didn’t recognise” the allegations was the final straw for some.
Becky said: “I haven’t spoken previously out of loyalty to the party. What frustrates me most is when I read the article and the party is saying that they don't recognize the comments.
“I went twice in borderline tears to a senior figure who I respect. I told him I can do nothing right in this job and no matter how many hours I work, everything I do is wrong. He assured me that things would be done in the background, but nothing ever came of it, and it never got any better."
She added: “The rest of the group are all complicit in it because they all know! They don’t want to lose the seat.”
WalesOnline approached the Conservative Senedd group about the fresh allegations. The only response we received was a spokesman saying: “We will not be commenting any further as individual staffing arrangements are a matter for the MS as the employer. As the Group is not the employer, any formal complaint needs to follow the process laid out in the Senedd Staff Handbook.”
WalesOnline also approached the Aberconwy MS about the allegations. We put to her all the claims of her former staff.
In response she sent the following statement: “I am proud of my record for delivering for the people of Aberconwy, which has seen me re-elected twice.
“I also take the health and welfare of my staff very seriously. In my time as an elected member for some eleven years, as the member of Aberconwy, I have not been made aware of any official complaint about the working arrangements in my office.”
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