Islington Council has been kicked out of a new workplace competition after offering inducements of free holidays to staff who filled out a survey.
The council has been banned from the Best Councils to Work For list, published by the Times, which aims to recognise councils that have the best workplaces in the UK.
The competition is run by Best Companies, the organisation behind The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For lists.
Councillor John Gilbert said the council did initially offer an incentive of a day’s extra holiday for one respondent, picked at random, to those taking part in the survey.
“This is standard practice for internal staff surveys run by Islington Council, and is in no way intended to compromise the quality or confidentiality of the response to Best Companies,” he said.
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“However, we have been told that even an incentive to participate breached the rules for this particular survey, which we find surprising. I am very disappointed that we have now been asked to withdraw from the survey.”
The final list is due to be published next month.
