August Newsletter

Southend UNISON Newsletter August 2021

Follow these links to individual articles:

Local Government & Schools Pay
Mandatory Vaccinations for Care Staff
SBC Business Support Restructure

Local Government & Schools Pay

Unions recommend REJECT in consultative ballot

Reject Pay Offer 2021

The trade union side of the National joint Committee (NJC) met on 28^th July to discuss the Employers’ Side’s final pay offer, and to agree next steps.

The offer is for a 1.75% pay increase from 1 April 2021, with 2.75% for those on spinal column point 1. The offer also included commitment to complete the term time review, discussions on joint guidance on homeworking and mental health, and incorporation of new statutory provisions of neo-natal leave and pay into the Green Book.

This offer affects local council employees, most schools staff and other organisations which follow the NJC pay award.

This offer falls far short of what members need and deserve. Local government staff have suffered years of real terms pay cuts, and inflation is now 3.9%. So the 1.75% for everyone above pay point 1 will cause local government pay to fall further behind the cost of living. Our members have shown how indispensable they are throughout COVID, often putting their own health and safety at risk so as to continue to provide services. This pay offer is far less than they deserve.

There is more informstion about the pay claim and the consultation here: https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2021/08/now-is-the-time-have-your-say-on-pay/

The trade unions have agreed to launch a consultation of members on this pay offer. On 6^th September, you should receive an email with details of the electronic consultation. Check your spam folder as well as your inbox! Please make sure UNISON has the right contact details for you, including the email you want us to use – you can do this yourself at https://www.unison.org.uk/my-unison/

UNISON and the other unions agreed strongly to recommend that members vote to reject the pay offer.

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Mandatory Vaccines for Care Staff

Covidvax image

New legislation covering care homes comes in to being on November 11^th 2021. If you have not had your second Covid vaccination in time to be effective by this date you could be subject to having your contract with your employer ended unless you have a valid medical reason for not having the vaccination.

UNISON will where possible support our members in negotiating with the employer to secure redeployment if that is practicable. If you feel you are not being treated fairly by your employer let us know and we will offer support and advice wherever we can.

UNISON believes that employers should offer staff paid time off to get the vaccinations as part of the national effort. They should also support their employees to enable them to abide by the new legislation while continuing to do their jobs. We would also encourage employers not to count any time off due to any side effects of the vaccine towards sickness.

We understand that some people have concerns about vaccines, but UNISON urges all employees who are called forward to be inoculated to ensure that they take up the opportunity as soon as possible. We have always opposed compulsion, believing that persuasion is a much better way of increasing vaccine take up. However, we will be working to support and protect members who are affected by the new legislation.

Remember although the vaccines are effective, they do not completely stop the infection transmitting from person to person so all appropriate health and safety measures should still be taken by your employer. These measures will include personal protective equipment (PPE), for instance masks and aprons and also continued social distancing where it is appropriate. If you believe any of this support from your employer during the pandemic is not forthcoming – let UNISON know!

You can download further information here (Word documents):

https://www.unison.org.uk/unison-guidance-for-branches-on-mandatory-vaccination-in-social-care-final-4th-aug/

https://www.unison.org.uk/vaccination-faq/

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SBC Business Support Restructure

UNISON has been supporting members in ‘Business Support’ across Southend Council, where a loss of 28 FTEs (Full Time Equivalents) is planned and 157 staff are having to reapply for their jobs.

The ‘consultation’ gave no information about the new jobs. This was completely unacceptable and the unions have now obtained an extension to the exercise. The Council will issue new information on the 6th September.

Will this be enough to make the consultation ‘meaningful’? We have met councillors to point out that the information for staff has been poor and that the plan to cut 25% of resources overall will impact services. Watch this space!

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Covid-19 Minute’s Silence

UNISON Marks International Workers’ Memorial Day

Pictures from Southend UNISON’s event at the Civic Centre and some selfies by members – Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living.

We joined the national minute’s silence for key workers who have lost their lives and in support of all those who are in the front line, in the NHS, social care, transport, retail, post office and other sectors. They need our solidarity and proper protection. Thanks to all those who supported (despite the rain!) #IWMD2020 #PPEnow

News on Schools Contractors

Advice on Contractors in Schools –

If you work in a school or work for a contractor in a school, there is new advice from the government about continuity for contractors. Essentially, UNISON advises that schools should continue to pay all their contractors – and that contractors should pay their staff!

This information should be used to help ensure all staff keep their jobs and their pay during the Covid-19 crisis. The advice is detailed but can be shared with your employer to help clarify what is expected. Contact UNISON unison@southend.gov.uk if you want to discuss how this affects your school or your position as the employee of a contractor. Click here to see the government document in full.

UNISON Action on Sickness and Stress

More and more of us face formal sickness processes at work, with the stress of knowing our jobs could be on the line through no fault of our own.

Southend UNISON stewards recently took part in 2 days of training looking at how best to support members when they are faced with a formal sickness absence process.

Sickness training delegates — Southend activists on the Sickness Process training course

In Southend branch we know these processes are becoming more and more common. We find cases also more often relate to stress and anxiety, often due to the volume of work and lack of management support or to long-standing underlying health issues which employers are failing to address with ‘reasonable adjustments’ as set out in the Equalities Act.

UNISON nationally and as a branch has highlighted how the massive cuts in local government funding since 2008 were bound to store up trouble as staff workloads have doubled as the workforce has been axed.

It’s coming home to roost now with increased sickness figures relating to stress are increasingly being reported.

Find out more about stress at work and what you can do to protect yourself and make our workplaces safe – see UNISON’s advice here!

Find out more about ‘reasonable adjustments’ to support your disability/health issues on the Worksmart site here

Contact your steward or the branch if you have questions, ideas or need our help.

UNISON AGM 2020

Southend UNISON Annual General Meeting

5pm, Thursday 19th March 2020

Committee Room 4a, Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, Southend

AGM poster 2020 Our Annual General Meeting is open to all our members. It’s when we get a chance as a branch to discuss our work over the year and decide what we want for next year. You can take part in electing your Branch Officers for the year ahead and you can ask questions about the union. We invite all members to come along – it’s your union!

There are free refreshments and a buffet at the end of the meeting (from 6:15pm). Thompson’s Solicitors and other organisations will be present with information stalls.

You can nominate people (including yourself!) to be officers and stewards, preferably in advance of the meeting and you can also raise motions and questions for discussion.

You should have received information in the post about this but if in doubt, email unison@southend.gov.uk for further details.

Please follow us on Facebook – there is a Facebook event here.

AGM Details and Guest Speaker

Final agenda for Southend Branch Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 22nd March is now out. Our Guest Speaker is confirmed as Mark Dear, from War on Want. Amongst other topics, Mark will be speaking about the campaign against the ‘TTIP’ trade treaty which threatens wholescale privatisation of the NHS and other services.

You can download the letter of invitation, agenda and nomination form for officers and stewards here

Southend members at the Trade Union Bill Lobby – Defend Our Unions!

#Tubill #Right2strike

Members of Southend branch joined thousands of other trade unionists on Monday 2nd November to lobby Members of Parliament. We were raising issues about the attacks on facility time, democracy and our right to take effective industrial action.

See more details here

The campaign goes on – here are some pictures from the day: