May 2014 newsletter

Inside

Public Service Not Private Profit March 2014

ReviewCity and County of Swansea

UNISON to ballot membersover the pay freeze

UKIP:a racist, anti-public sectorparty is afteryour vote

Public sectorworkers haveseen their payfrozen as thecost of livingsoars andthousands nowfind themselvesearning lessthan the livingwage. Familybudgets are atbreaking point.Frances O'Grady,TUC general secretary

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All workers, whether they work in thepublic, private or voluntary sector, havefaced major cuts in the value of their payover the last few years.

This is the result of pay freezes in 2010,2011 and 2012 and a below inflation payincrease of 1% in 2013. On top of thisdecline, individual councils continue to cutpay and conditions at local level. For somepublic serviceworkers, inflation has cut 16%out of the value of their pay packet since2010.

Bonanza for the bosses

However, the government and much of thepress try to sow divisions among workingpeoplewith false claims about differences inpay rates, while remaining silent on thebonanza enjoyed by billionaire companiesand millionaire bosses. Average payincreases for FTSE 100 directors rose by27% in 2012 - 15 times the average increasefor employees across the economy.Shareholders received the largest-everdividend pay-out from UK companies in thethird quarter of 2012, jumping 10% to£23.2bn.

We all expect and deserve high qualitypublic services, but the most vitalingredients of quality services aremotivatedstaff whoare valuedanddecently rewarded.Thegovernment'spolicieshave takenus theopposite direction: slashing funding on anunprecedented scale, resulting in servicesbeing cut and staff salaries being frozen.

The government's austerity programme isprojected to slash £73bn from budgets fordelivering public services between 2010and 2017.

But the impact is not confined to the publicsector: for every £1 cut from publicspending, £1.70 of private sector economicactivity is lost.

The government tries to justify all this byarguing that it is tackling government debt,but austerity makes the debt worse - it hasactually risen from £870bn to £1,193bnsince the Tory-Lib Dem coalition came tooffice.

What has happened to local governmentpay is not simply a story of the lowest paidworkers in the public sector being squeezedhardest. Local government pay (NJC) is thelowest in the public sector – from top tobottom of the pay spine.

We all suffer from low pay

Without a decent level of pay, localgovernment workers are struggling to paytheir household bills let alone save for majoritems of spending. Payday loans, handoutsand food banks are becoming a way of lifefor many.

It is an outrage that people providingessential public services do not have adecent standard of living. However, it's not

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CAR PARKCHAOS:council planswill causemisery

JOB EVALUATIONAPPEALS:

no justice fromthe council's

scheme

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Single Status, Terms & ConditionsHow long will it be

Pay 2014:continued from front pagejust the workers who are beingaffected, for those with familiesthe impact can often be greaterstill.

Pay also matters becausecommunities depend on peoplebeing in work and earning decentpay–pay thatwespendwherewelive, which boosts localbusinesses and creates newjobs.

But while the government arepiling on the attacks there is agrowing mood that enough isenough:

Firefighters were out on strikein early May in defence of theirpensions.

London tube workers were onstrike at the end of April battling tostop job losses and the closure ofticket offices.

Workers at energy companyEDF, members of Unite, were onstrike over pay in May

Unisonmembers at CareUK inDoncaster have launched afurther two week strike againstthe huge pay cuts they face.Unison Gwalia care workers inSwansea are due to strike in mid-May against pay-cuts.

LocalGovernmentworkersandthe others above could link upwith teachers who plan furtheraction against educationsecretary Michael Gove’s attackson their pay, conditions and oneducation.

That could mean a million peoplestriking together. And healthworkers could take action overpay this autumn too.

We’d all be stronger if we broughtthe fights together. That’s whathappened back in November2011 when 2.5 million peoplewere on strike to defendpensions.

That strike movement could havebeaten the government. Butsome union leaders backed awayfrom the fight. That can’t beallowed to happen again.

The pay ballot of 600,000 localgovernmentworkers runs from23 May until 23 June.

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Many who have lost pay, not got the pay they deserve or who have the wrong jobdescription from job evaluation hope to rectify the position by lodging an appeal andexpect at least a fair hearing.

UNISON along with the other trade unions put forward that the panel hearing theappeal should consist a Trade union representative, a representative ofmanagement and a councillor.

All of these should not have had involvement previously in the appeal being heard.

Unfair

The employer has arbitrarily decided that the panel will be as follows:

In summary, the Stage 2 Formal Appeal Panel will consist of:

An independent Head of Service or nominatedManagerAn Independent Trade Union representative; andAn independent Pay and Grading (or HR) Officer.

In this sc

TheTUAll MWheinvobe a

No inde

The job aWhilst Ube the noto one m

If that isthe graddecidedcourse uto you.

No justice in job-evaluation 'appeals'

UNISON has lodged a formalcollective grievance with thecouncil on the imposition of themis-named ‘Best and FinalOffer’. Misnamed as in truthUNISON never accepted the‘offer’ and this has beenarbitrarily imposed.

We have raised the followingissues with the employer:

Retainer Pay – The councilproposal is to withdraw thispay from over 2000employees in schools whowork term time amounting toabout 3 weeks pay cut.UNISONwants to re-negotiatethis payment to the same levelpaid as neighbouring councilstaff.

Shift Pay - This waswithdrawn from thenegotiations at the very lastminute by the employer. Wewant this back on the table fornegotiation.

Job Evaluation AppealsProcedure - Many staff havelost substantial amounts oftheir pay thanks to single-status. Even though it wassupposed to equalise paybetween male and femaleworkers, many women

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workers are now the one’s facingpay cuts in the name of ‘equality’.Many believe that when appealingagainst the grade they will not havea fair hearing. With an appealprocedure still to be concludedUNISONcannot reassure staff theywill get a fair hearing and we have

been proved correct (sbelow).

Car Parking Charges - Wpayment of 45 pence pmany staff who are contrause their cars for council dufinding the costs prohibitiv

Unison members protested against the Tory conference last se

& Budget Cuts:e before action is needed?

cenario:

role of Chairperson will alternate between the Jointand Management side;Members of the panel will have an equal vote; andere possible, Panel Members will not have beenolved in the original allocation of the role and will notassociated to the appellants’ Trade Union.

ependence

analysts are not independent and they are representatives of the employer.NISONhasnodisagreementwith themgiving advice to a panelwhichwouldorm, they should not be a part of the panel otherwise the employers 2 votesmeans the panel is unbalanced and unfair.

not enough staff are being advised for example Night Care Domestics thatde they were originally given is not to be honoured and management haveto arbitrarily down grade them and if they don’t like it they can appeal of

using the biased appeal systemabove. If it can happen to them it can happen

UNISON has also lodged a formal collective grievance about theongoing plans to move a further 900 staff into the SwanseaGuildhall from other offices from the 1st April 14 and onwardswithout regard to the lack of car parking.

UNISON have been engaged in talks with the council officers butthey do not seem to want to see there is insufficient parking nowfor the current staff and the council wants to make the problemworse by moving a further 900 staff there. This has majorimplications for which there seems to have been little or noplanning for parking.

There are problems for at some 40% of staff like social workerswho have to use cars to carry out their duties. They leave theiroffice in the Guildhall only to find when they return they have towaste valuable time driving round and round looking for a parkingspace and even then they can’t find one even though they havepaid for a space in advance. These employees have to pay thecouncil for aparkingspacesoas to carryout councilworkand thenthe council seem unprepared to honour what is paid for and seemto just regard these employees as a means of making money.

The problem is made worse at the Guildhall when councilmeetings are held, as priority spaces for councillors are fenced offmaking fewer spaces available for council staff carrying outessential duties. This same scenario occurs when there areevents held in the hall, particularly when film and TV crews - orcouncillors for council ceremonies - are again given priority.

Driving us to the limit

The other staff which is in excess of 600 have been told theymustpark at the recreation car park which is some distance away. Thiscar park has400 spacesofwhichmore than200are alreadygivenover to Swansea University. So potentially we will have 600 staffcompeting for fewer than 200 spaces. Whilst some will arriveearly, those who have children and other commitments will not beable to park there and again they will be driving around looking topark, may arrive late and risk being disciplined and pay docked.Again officers seem to be more keen to exploit the funding fromthe University then they do providing adequate facilities for staff.We would also raise what Equality Impact assessments were

undertaken?

Staff just want to do the essential job they are employed to dowithout all this extra hassle, their jobs are stressful enough. Theydid not asked to be forcibly moved to the Guildhall from outlyingoffices. The least they could have expected is that properplanning had taken place when making such a decision.

UNISON has already undertaken a informal poll of our membersand they have voted 3 to 1 in support of industrial action.We haveproposals to put to the council but if these are continuallydisregarded with the same disdain the council should be awareindustrial action could result, however UNISON regards this as alast resort when other avenues have been exhausted, hence theregistering of the collective grievance.

Car Park Chaos:paying for nothing

see box

With theper mile,acted touties areve. Staff

are forced to pay car parkingcharges when having to have theircars available for the benefit of thecouncil. This is plainly unfair.

Other Issues - UNISON alsoraised the following issues: StandBy, Relocation Payments, Adverse

Weather Pay, UnsocialHours and OvertimePayments, Compulsoryovertime, forced changes toworking hours.

The only issue the employerhas agreed to discuss furtheris the Car Parking Chargesand to date we have notheard from the council.

Further since the originalSingle Status proposalsissues have also been madeworse as follows:-

Flexi Scheme. Individualmanagers have decided inpractise to arbitrarilywithdraw this scheme fromgroups of staff withoutagreement or consultation.Unless challenged weanticipate this practice isseriously jeopardised theflexi-scheme for allemployees.

Hours of work. Many staffwho are not on flexi-time arefinding their hours of workunilaterally changed.

Staffwhohaduseofpool carsare having these withdrawnwithout consultation.

eptember—soon we could be on strike

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This newsletter is produced by the City and County of Swansea Unison Branch. Any letters, comments or suggestions for articles should be posted to the branch addressor emailed to [email protected]. Correspondence is not guaranteed to be published and contents may not necessarily reflect Unison policy.

Spor ts & Socia l websi te : www.suss.me.uk www.unison.co.uk

Contact us: Unison Office, Rm 153-G, The Guildhall, Swansea01792 635271 [email protected]

Unison has over 100 trained union reps throughout the council, schools andFEcolleges.Wewill advise,support and represent you collectively and individually on issues from sickness, disciplinaries to legalmatters insideandoutside theworkplace. If youneedadviceor representationpleasecontact theSeniorSteward(s) for your department below or go to your workplace steward. Alternatively please contact thebranch office.

Branch Secretary: Mike Davies / Asst. Secretary: Ian Alexander

Social ServicesAlison O'Kane - 07856 641234Alison Davies - 07941 757853Martin Chapman - 01792 635271EducationPat Lopez - 07557 560097Mark Otten - 07789 485009Eve Morse - 07532 232873 (after 3.30 pm)Chris Bell - 07967 551025

Regeneration/HousingJohn Llewellyn - 07557 560093Roger Owen - 07847 942458Gower CollegeRon Job - 07963 454041ResourcesRhydian Prismick - 01792 635803HousingSallyanne Taylor - 07825 401711YO

URUNION

YOURUNION

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UKIP: a racist party that wants to sack us

public sector jobs are takingmoney out of the economy...Ihope hundreds, thousands ofjobs will be lost...You will neverunderstand UKIP until youunderstand this point.Former investment-banker and UKIP economicspokesperson Geoffrey Bloom

Euro-elections

UKIP leader Nigel Farage says he isa man of the people. The Daily Mirrorproved he is not. It exposed the fact thatFarage opened a trust fund in anoffshore tax haven, in a bid to savethousands of pounds in tax -money thatcould have been spent on schools,hospitals and public housing. Farage isa private school educated, ex-Tory Citybroker.

UKIP blames migrant workers fromEastern Europe for the economic crisis,unemployment and lack of housing.This is a lie: the bankers and their richfriends in the City created the crisis—and they want the poor to pay.Immigrants haven’t shut down majoremployers, closed hospital services orsent your gas and electricity billsthrough the roof.

UKIP is riddled with racists, sexists,homophobes and bigots. Nigel Faragesays his political hero is Enoch Powell,whose 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speechhas been a touchstone for racists andfascists ever since.When fascists wereexposed among UKIP electioncandidates, Farage admitted the party

couldn’t vet its candidates to keep them out.

UKIP wants to takemoney away from stateschools and give it to private schools likeEton.

UKIP boasts that if it got into power it wouldscrap the European Convention on HumanRights. This act protects us all. Its measuresinclude our right to a fair trial and to freedom

of assembly. It bans slavery and torture.UKIPopposes equal rights and same- sexmarriage. They say there is no demand forsame-sex marriage, ‘apart from a small butnoisy minority within the gay community’.They claim same-sex marriage will‘undermine the position of the church’.

UKIP pledges tomassively increasemilitaryexpenditure, building seven aircraft carriers.Thiswould cost around£48.3bn—almost halfthe NHS budget for a year.

UKIP wants to slash the number of windfarms and launch a £90bn nuclear powerprogramme.

UKIP’s proposed tax rate for everyone is31% — a tax cut for the rich, a hike for thepoor. We would face tax rises whilst the Dukeof Westminster - 'worth' £7.8bn - would havehis tax cut.

UKIP is a racist, far-right party thatloves the rich - and it’s after ourvotes. UNISON recently supported ademonstration when Nigel Faragecame to Swansea. Here's why:

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An 'adapted' UKIP poster in Swansea recently received national coverage

http://standuptoukip.org