Inside
Sports & Social: Badminton League and other events
CCTV & the workplace:
No to bigotry: standing up to racist Trump and the nazi Robinson
Ever get that feeling you are being watched?
City and County of Swansea
Review Commissioning reviews:
Commissioning Cuts A lesson learned from the recent Leisure services Commissioning review, and the subsequent outsourcing of our crown jewels, was the stance by some of our elected members when they said the unions had been fully involved. Almost every good-practice management guide considers their involvement a prerequisite. Unison was not involved in the procurement of the leisure services strategic partnership with Freedom or any of the other service bidders, we campaigned strongly to retain the inhouse services and we stood alone as a union. 'Consultation' Authority meetings often have a paragraph headed ‘Trade Union Consultation’ which describes how trade unions “were briefed” on the latest set of proposals accompanied by a short summary of their response. This does not constitute involvement, participation or engagement by any stretch of the imagination.
Fatalistic
“
It wasn’t so long ago that we saw our housing department was under threat where the authority then proposed that a
Public Service Not Private Profit
Disastrous It wasn’t so long ago that we saw Swansea City Council and contractor Capgemini unite with disastrous consequences. Swansea City Council failed to apply key principles of IT management properly when it agreed an £83m outsourcing deal that is struggling to deliver anticipated benefits,
they are usually and more accurately - an 'update' for decisions about cuts already made elsewhere and then the cog turns and they move on
I recently put my own observation to our branch committee that commissioning reviews were an inevitable approach to a number of service reviews. We as a union need to prepare to protect our in-house services and our members rights. We have to see that the Authorities negotiating approach has evolved from genuine consultation to a fatalistic acceptance of cuts.
www.ccsunison.org.uk
At the time Paul Lynch of Swansea Defend Council Housing, said: "No matter what they say this is the privatisation of council housing." He claimed the authority's offer document sent to every household was one-sided and failed to address issues of concern.
“
In fact they are usually - and more accurately - an 'update' for decisions about cuts already made elsewhere and then the cog turns and they move on. This has historically been the case with past union involvement in commissioning reviews.
“community mutual” housing association takes over the running of our then thirteen thousand homes.
The council's original outsourcing contract with Capgemini, to replace back-office systems and create online public services, promised to deliver £70m savings over its 10-year life when it was signed in 2006. Millions The council scaled back the contract to a £40m project a year later, predicting savings of £26m over 10 years. To date, it had achieved savings of £6m. This service was brought back in-house ten years later after millions spent.
A lesson learned of course, but the wrong one, and the birth of the commissioning review was conceived. UNISON approaches each review remembering that the outcomes affect our members and it affects every single employee - and we must be prepared to fight the often pre-ordained results where necessary.
Chris Cooze UNISON Branch Secretary
'Swansea Unison' August 2018
The Lagoon: is it all over?
Every get that fe are being watch
Swansea Unison has welcomed the Holistic Capital report into the Lagoon Project. The report states that alternative methods of financing the project should be explored. This includes the development of a new task force, which would look at alternative ways of constructing, funding and operating the lagoon. Although the finer details of the task force are still to be announced, Unison supports in principle the setting up of the task force. The task force will include industry experts, government officials from UK and Welsh Government local authority officers and financial experts. Evidence The Lagoon already has the support of Charles Hendry, who wrote the Hendry Review into the project, where he states, "the more evidence I have seen, the more persuaded I have become that tidal lagoons do have an important role to play and there should be a government strategy in place to help this happen. ’’ Furthermore, the UK Tory government's refusal to give the go ahead of the project demonstrated the lack of support for Swansea and across South Wales. The government clearly has a London-centric approach for major infrastructure projects. This denied our communities investment worth 2 billion pounds if you include the ending of electrification at Cardiff demonstrates that UK Tory Government has no interest of our members and in the welfare Swansea and South West Wales. England If it is good enough for England it is good enough for Wales. Where the task force will identify other ways in which the lagoon will be funded and built in Swansea, for the people of Wales and technology will help reduce the carbon foot print and providing the technology for Lagoons to be built across Wales the UK and abroad
UNISON Swansea Branch Supports Reduction of Carbon Footprint Unison members are very much aware of the importance to reduce their carbon foot print. But is the Authority committed to further transferring its fleet of vehicles over to greener energy sources? This would reduce our carbon footprint and the Council should take up the government’s subsidy initiatives to introduce street side electric vehicle points in Swansea.
Swansea Council Leader Rob Stewart has said: 'I am pleased to be able to commit to a wide scale shift towards electric vehicles and also other forms of sustainable travel such as hydrogen vehicles as the technology emerges. Most if not all of the authorities small vans and cars will be switched over to electric as soon as is possible. The larger vans and HGV vehicles are more difficult due to very limited travel time and battery weights. However we are working with a number of suppliers and will test and implement as soon as we have a viable solution. I have tasked the cabinet member with the responsibility for energy Cllr Andrea Lewis to work with officers to develop a green fleet strategy and a wider infrastructure plan for a network of workplace accessible charge points available to the public'
UNISON has raised concerns regarding the use of CCTV and other devices to monitor the staff directly employed by the authority breaching their right of privacy at work. This matter was then formally raised via our monthly trade union meeting. The 2 major pieces of legislation concerning workers’ rights to privacy are the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998 (which came into force in 2000) Contractual In addition, there is a contractual duty implied between employers and employees of “Mutual Trust and Confidence.” This may be breached if the employer is found to have invaded a workers right to privacy. The Human Rights Act brings the rights enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms into force in the UK; this requires all public bodies to take these human rights into account in their procedures and actions. This means that employees of Public Authorities may be able to take legal action if, they believe there is a breach of the convention. (i.e. Monitoring and Surveillance). Legal protocol UNISON would request for an agreement to ensure that a full and legal protocol is undertaken to protect the rights of all employees of the council. This matter has been raised in light of the use of covert surveillance on an individual employee, the introduction of vehicle equipment with the capability to eaves-drop in driver’s cabs and our members reporting to us of an over zealous supervisor monitoring vehicle-tracker information to identify staff whereabouts. UNISON firmly believes that the big brother approach lowers morale and leads to a less proactive workforce.
Dis
Th evi Em voi go dis hav sho de the the
Wo
UN in t hom mo em wo veh the and hab
Lik reg veh bus use org the use but
It is leg are ton
Ple ass
eeling you hed?
sciplinary
e use of monitoring and surveillance information / idence in a disciplinary cases is another area. mployers have the right to access emails and icemails as long as they have told you they are ing to do it. In some workplace investigations and sciplinary cases, emails and CCTV surveillance ve been used as part of the case. Employees ould remember that even though they may have leted emails months ago, most work places have e capacity to access emails for up to a year after ey were sent.
ork vehicle
NISON branches have been reporting an increase the use of vehicle monitoring especially in some me care and private sector employers. Workplace onitoring can be extended to vehicles especially in mployers where their workforce is generally off-site orking in different locations. Devices are put into hicles so that employers can see the location of eir vehicles, the distances the vehicle has travelled d any other information about the drivers ‘driving’ bits.
ke covert monitoring this type of monitoring is gulated by the Data Protection Act, but where a hicle is being used for private use as well as siness use it is hard to justify. Where vehicles are ed for private and business use some ganisations have had devices fitted that balance e need for privacy and when the vehicle is being ed for private use, the employee can switch a tton on the device to disable the monitoring.
s important to note that some employers have a gal obligation to track vehicles when tachographs e fitted – e.g. lorries and other vehicles over 5.5 nnes.
ease speak to you UNISON Stewards about impact sessments and risk assessments on these issues
Could you be a union rep?
UNISON stewards are elected by you and they are the heart of the union and our branch. They are there as the first point of contact when you need help. The main Organising Stewards course is a 5-day course to get your stewards trained and certified to represent you under the Employment Relations Act (ERA). This course helps our stewards in supporting our members and gives them the confidence is talking with members and managers about workplace issues.
can, and what we don’t know we will find out. The picture above shows several our stewards on the new organising stewards course being taught by our own qualified tutor Chris Cooze. Chris is not only our Branch Secretary but a fully trained Lay tutor which allows us to hold in house courses.
Topics covered include the Equality Act 2010, Health & Safety and dealing with grievance and disciplinary issues.
Chris started as a steward and moved forward with Unison & T.U.C training courses that all our stewards can advance to. Steward training is now available in-house. Our stewards are there to help you the members with workplace issues even to help train and support other upcoming stewards.
As stewards we don’t know everything, but we do our best to help in any way we
Scott Berry Unison Branch Education Officer
The Swansea Unison Lunchtime Badminton League started with four members of staff from Princess House playing once a week, and has gradually expanded to accommodate more and more City & County of Swansea staff who wanted to play. The league normally has 60 members and former members of staff playing each week, and the season runs from September to June.
ability to participate. There are five divisions of 12 players, divided into 6 pairs. Each pair will play each of the other pairs over five weeks. At the end of the five weeks, the top pair are promoted, and the bottom pair are relegated. All pairs are re-drawn and the session starts again. There are usually eight sessions in the season.
Matches are played at lunchtime (12.30 to 1.30pm), and are played at the Swansea LC. Games are played from Monday to Friday each week. We want to encourage players of all levels of
Congratulations to UNISON's team at this years Gower Bike Ride
We currently offer a discounted rate to Unison, and Unison Sports and Social members to participate in the league. We currently have 30 Unison members in the league but need more regardless of ability.If you are interested in joining then please contact Mark Davies on mark.davies@swansea.ov.uk or 637391. See our Sports & Social events on Facebook as well: 'Swansea Unison'
Standing Up To Racism
UNISON members locally have been active campaigning in many events in recent months. The huge 250,000-strong demonstration in London against the bigoted views and visit of Trump to the UK (main picture) was an inspiring experience. The next day there was a demonstration against against the Nazi Tommy Robinson (insert picture) and his racist and fascist supporters. Both demonstrations were supported by UNISON and all major trade unions. To get involved in Stand Up To Racism locally please contact the branch or go to http://www.standuptoracism.org.uk
The first meeting of the new Labour Link forum for Labour Link members of Unison, to meet with councillors from the local authority, AM’s and MP’s who are members of Unison, will take place on the 6th September.
YOUR UNION
The forum will look at ways we can work together to ensure Swansea remains Labour at all levels of representation. We want policies that ensure that there is an end of austerity by the UK Tory Government.
Local government should be funded properly, with the aim that services are maintained and the most vulnerable in our communities are protected. This includes education and social services and investment within all departments within Swansea council. Unique In other news, a unique pop-up community café and one stop shop has opened in Ty Newydd in West Street, Gorseinon, open every Wednesday from 1-3pm to help members of the local community with a whole range of issues.
The new facility, is backed by local Labour Party activists and Local Area Coordinator Ronan Ruddy, among others, and is designed to cater for the whole community. People will not only be able to socialise but the pop-up community café offers access to a number of free services, such as employment support, legal advice, benefits/welfare advice and volunteering opportunities.
There will also be support if you have mental health issues or disabilities or are experiencing issues associated with age, loneliness, bereavement, LGBT rights, women’s rights, or anything else. Support
You will also be able to find out about clubs, groups, activities and networks going on in Gorseinon and the surrounding areas.
The aim is to provide people with whatever support they need, where they need it and when they need it and I am pleased to see that this has inspired both volunteers and professionals to come forward and offer their services for free. Dave White, Branch Chair
Contact us: Unison Office, Rm 153-G, The Guildhall, Swansea SA1 4PE
01792 635271
unison@swansea.gov.uk Branch Secretary: Chris Cooze
Unison has many trained union reps throughout the council, schools and FE colleges. We will advise, support and represent you collectively and individually on issues from sickness, disciplinaries to legal matters inside and outside the workplace. If you need advice or representation please contact the Senior Steward(s) or Contact for your department below or go to your workplace steward. Alternatively please contact the branch office.
www.ccsunison.org.uk
Office Landline: Office Mobile:
01792 635271 07468451764
Chris Cooze: Rob Thomas: Patrick McCormack: Mark Otten: David White: Mathew Shephard:
07754324238 07900702815 07771922985 07554425841 07870465697 07584198885
www.unison.co.uk
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 address or emailed to Unison@swansea.gov.uk. Correspondence is not guaranteed to be published and contents may not necessarily reflect Unison policy.