A Welsh Member of the Senedd who has issued 22 job adverts in the last six years has blamed the "demanding" nature of the role for her difficulty keeping staff in post. Welsh Tory MS Janet Finch-Saunders denied allegations by one former staff member who claimed there was an intense level of control in her office, and they had to ask to go to the toilet. She called the allegations "unpleasant and ridiculous".
A Freedom of Information Act request we put in showed Ms Finch-Saunders has advertised more jobs than any other Member of the Senedd since 2016, with 22 job adverts. No other MS had advertised more than 14 and many have only advertised two or three times to recruit new staff members. Most MSs employ three or four people.
One former staff member who did not want to be named claimed it was an unpleasant working environment in her office, saying: "It was just a toxic environment with intense levels of control."
They said: “It was hard, there was just a complete lack of respect for boundaries such as things like asking permission to go to the toilet. I went to the library once and ended up with something like five emails and about 10 missed calls. I'd gone to the library to pick up stuff that I had to get for my job. There were calls outside work, just really clear behaviour outside the job description. I know it's left some people in quite bad places. It is very very tough. It was impossible to know the right thing to do. If she was to make a mistake it would be your fault.”
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The former employee called for a more robust procedure in the Senedd so that staffers, who work directly for the politician and not for the institution, have someone to go to if there are issues.
Ms Finch-Saunders told WalesOnline: “As the elected member for the constituency of Aberconwy I am very proud indeed of my own record of hard work and dedication in steadfastly always representing my constituents in a robust manner. There is testament to this in the fact that I have been elected three times over the past eleven years, with an increased majority. We are an extremely busy office, and I am incredibly proud and grateful to all staff members who have succeeded in helping me to undertake my role.
“It is very disappointing that a disgruntled previous member of staff now feels the need to make such unpleasant and ridiculous comments about the running of my office, which I simply do not agree with. I have had the enormous pleasure of working with several talented and capable individuals over the years, however such a demanding role in serving the public well isn’t suited for everybody.”
A Welsh Conservative Senedd spokesperson said: “Janet is passionate in standing up for local communities in Aberconwy and has been fully endorsed repeatedly by her constituents. The comments made by the former employee aren’t recognised. What is recognised is that Welsh Conservative members and staff are very supportive of all their colleagues day in, day out.”
There is no fixed amount of staff an MS can employ, rather there is a maximum of £110,570 allowance for persons employed by them to enable the performance of their duties.
In reality this means that most MSs employ three or four people (though if it is four they are likely to be mainly entry level roles). If we assume Janet Finch-Sauders has three staff members, this means she has had a complete turnover in staff (in terms of numbers) every year. But for some of the period concerned, she was employing her husband as an office manager for 37 hours a week.
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