Inside
Learning Lessons: the Trade Union Bill
School Staff & Medication
Social Media: Campaigning do's and don't's
City and County of Swansea
Review Hands Off Our Pensions! Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) are funded by local investment panels investing in the stock market – and making a profit. The government wants to use the money in your pension funds to invest in their pet infrastructure projects. This potentially puts at risk the money that should be used to pay your pensions. There has been no debate in Parliament over this issue and we need to try and make sure it gets debated.
Gamble 5 million people rely on the LGPS to pay their pensions. The Government wants powers over LGPS investment funds, but they could gamble away members’ money on infrastructure projects. This is not allowed in any other UK scheme, including the MPs'. The LGPS must be invested in members’ best interests.
Petition Accountable UNISON have established a Parliamentary petition which requires 100,000 signatures to get a debate in the House of Commons. You can sign it by clicking here https://petition.parliament.uk/ petitions/125475/signatures/new . And pass it on to a colleague – they don’t have to be a UNISON member to sign.
UNISON believes Parliament must debate this issue and make the government accountable for these powers of intervention as any such direction may breach the law. Specifically Article 18 paragraph 3 of the EU Directive 41/2003 Institutions for Occupational Retire Provision: “Member States shall not require institutions located in their territory to invest in particular categories of assets.”
UNISON campaigns for genuine minimum wage UNISON, has welcomed the new minimum wage of £7.20, whilst warning the government could undermine the work of the Welsh Government in this area. It has also criticised chancellor George Osborne for not ensuring young workers benefit from the new uplift in earnings. Over-25 The Chancellor has rebranded the national minimum wage a ‘national living wage’ and rates improve from £6.70 per
Public Service Not Private Profit
hour to £7.20 per hour from 1 April 2016. The rate will only apply to those over aged 25 and above and crucially, it is not based on living costs but a percentage of average earnings. Over-18 By contrast, UNISON has managed to negotiate with Welsh Government and Welsh Further Education employers a minimum payment of £8.25 per hour for anyone over 18 years old and UNISON is working with the Welsh Government to
examine how quickly a similar rate can be implemented in Welsh Local Government. £8.25 has been identified by the independent Living Wage Foundation, according to the cost of living and based upon a basket of household goods and services. Reduce poverty Dominic MacAskill of UNISON Cymru Wales, said, “We want to reduce poverty and inequality, so an increase in minimum wages is good news. p2
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May 2016
continued from front page Working with UNISON, the Labour Welsh Government and Further Education employers have taken much more positive action than the Tory Chancellor and ensured Welsh hospitals and colleges don’t pay less than £8.25 per hour, with council employees hopefully to follow as soon as possible”.
Support Welsh Museum S
Muddled “George Osborne has deliberately muddied what is a living wage in the hope people don’t notice and his new rate of £7.20 is not based upon an independent analysis of living costs. £8.25 per hour is the agreed minimum income needed to survive. The Chancellor is discriminating against young workers given his rate won’t apply to anyone under 25. Let’s have one decent minimum wage for all workers.”
New Schools Organiser The newest member of the regional UNISON team based in Wind Street is Liz Evans, who’s recently begun working as a local organiser, covering the Swansea and Neath Port Talbot regions. Liz is from Swansea and has always been active in Trade Unions: “When I began working in the public sector, I joined PCS union. I became Branch Secretary and then PCS Assistant Secretary, on a national level with HM Land Registry, fighting for the interests of workers across England and Wales.” Liz has represented people in many different areas - from Employment Tribunals to enforcing maternity rights. “Currently, I’m seeing local authority cuts leading to staff taking on increasingly higher workloads and it’s clear that many people are experiencing unacceptable pressure and strain at work”. Liz added that she’s looking forward to meeting more UNISON members across service groups to discuss issues affecting staff.
Sports & Social Cribbs Causeway Day Trip, Bristol - May 21st Prices from £5.00 Stratford Upon Avon Day Trip - July 16th Prices from £6.00 Birmingham Day Trip - August 13th Prices from £7.00
Low-paid National Museum of Wales (NMW) workers in PCS are now in their second week of all-out strike action. Workers at seven sites across Wales face huge pay-cuts of up to £2 3000pa due to savage cuts to their weekend pay. Sack Needless to say the managers - employed by the Welsh Government - attempting to impose this do not work weekends, will not lose out and have threatened to sack staff who do not sign new contracts. Solidarity Solidarity and financial support is urgently needed to bring this strike to victory. Please see the links below about this dispute by public sector trade-unionists who are fighting to
Members are advised that they should not use social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit) on their smart-phones, pc’s or tablets to make personal or defamatory comments about anyone; this includes managers, colleagues or friends etc.
Prices from £10.00 Date To Be Confirmed Bath Christmas Market - December 10th Prices from £6.00 ***Please note that you must be a Unison member
Speaker
Donate to the strike fund: Un account Name: PCS Amgued 107006 Branch, account Num sort code: 08-60-01 Invite a s your union meeting. Email PC Neil Harrison at tubz1917@l Secretary Peter Hill at dennishill20@hotmail.com
Collection sheet: http://bit.ly PCS Financial Appeal: http NMW leaflet: http://bit.ly/1rAS Strikers Facebook page is a http://bit.ly/1VMa7HA Swansea Solidarity Rally J http://bit.ly/1VeKCxq
Social media, campaigning and a wa
London Day Trip - November 12th Children’s Christmas Party***
protect their pay, terms and c public services for all of us.
Many social media platforms are often openly accessible online or via ‘friends’ or 'contacts' accounts which are shared. Members should not use their accounts in an inappropriate or offensive way which may lead to repercussions in work.
members should not use the which may breach the con users.
There are very justified reas policy around budgets cuts w defend the right of members also make as a union. Ca media is a vital tool and discouraging members from campaign.
for your child to be eligible to attend the Christmas Party Further information and booking forms are available from the Unison Office, Room 153G, Guildhall Swansea / unison@swansea.gov.uk / 01792 635271
Members should also be wary of including “City and County of Swansea employee” or other reference to the Council on their online profile. In particular,
However members should no between legitimate debate might be deemed as pe inappropriately offensive.
Strikers
Draconian Trade Union Act could have been stopped The Tories’ Trade Union Act 2016 was given royal approval recently and Britain’s anti-union laws got even more restrictive. Despite some concessions, the law makes it harder for workers to win a legal mandate for action—and easier for bosses to have them overturned. The law will not come into force immediately. Last summer the government said it could take two months after royal assent. Laws allowing agency workers to replace strikers are not part of this act and still have to go through parliament. Restrictions
conditions and
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Under the new act, if you want to strike legally there must be 50 percent turnout in the ballot. With “important public services” workers, 40 percent of those eligible to vote must back a strike for it to be legal. These areas include fire, health, education, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning. The Tories made one concession here, removing a reference to support workers in these services. But support workers could still have restrictions imposed depending on their role. The notice period for strikes will be extended from seven days to 14 unless bosses give their agreement. A ballot will only be valid for six months. Although this is increased by two months from the original bill’s proposal, there previously was no limit. It can be extended to nine months—if bosses agree. Proposals that bosses, police and the Certification Officer be given a full plan of picketing, protests and social media campaigns have been dropped. Armband Requiring a picket line “supervisor” to wear “a badge, armband or other item” was seemingly too prescriptive. But they still must wear “something that readily identifies” them. This does nothing to address fears that bosses could use this to victimise trade union activists. New provisions don’t apply to ballots that have already opened before they come into force. MPs watered down the Lords’ amendment to commission a “review” into electronic balloting. This now requires the minister to publish only a response to it, rather than a strategy to roll it out.
Concessions Concessions over political fund rules are supposedly proof of what lobbying politicians can achieve. And it’s true the Tories backed off making every member of a trade union with a political fund opt-in instead of opt-out of it. But after a 12-month “transition period” new members will have to opt-in, and any trade unionist whose union creates a political fund after this amount of time will have to do the same. The Tories abandoned plans to ban union subscriptions via payroll—known as check-off— provided the union pays for processing costs. Many unions already do this. Plans to limit facility time and the amount of money spent on it by public sector employers are to be delayed for three years. Investigate Finally the Certification Officer’s (CO) powers have been expanded. This ranges from requiring unions to annually report on all industrial action taken by its members to accounting for spending from unions’ political funds. The CO has new powers to investigate unions and impose fines. The Tories’ concessions were almost exactly as predicted by leaks in February. The Tories want union leaders to police strikes instead of leading them. What happens when union leaders are not confident of reaching the new thresholds is shown by the latest rotten pay deal for council workers in England and Wales. Unison received a clear message from members to reject the employers’ offer. But the bureaucracy went over their heads and accepted it. Hollow None of the local government strikes this century would have met the new thresholds. Unite union leader Len McCluskey’s claim that “our movement’s determination has wrung significant concessions from the government” ring hollow. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady was “pleased” to get the minor changes. But the TUC’s campaign to “protect the right to strike” has fallen well short of its stated aim. O’Grady said, rightly, that “The history books will show that the government’s first major act of this parliament has been to attack the right to strike.” But they will also show that the TUC's campaign to oppose it has been a dismal failure.Now we need to prepare to defy the new laws.
Council refuses payment to school support-staff UNISON has submitted a pay claim - and now a collective grievance - to the City and County of Swansea to get fair pay for school support staff who are administering medicines to children in our schools. We are seeking payments for those staff taking on these additional tasks as well as a robust training package of initial training and regular updates to learn, develop and refresh skills needed to carry out this role.
Swansea and will not consider paying them adequately for carrying out this role. The excuse for not doing so is the wording in the Teaching Assistant Level 3 – Behaviour Guidance and Support National Profile, ‘Attend to pupils’ personal needs and provide advice to assist in their social, health and hygiene development.’ No Recognition
Unwilling The Council has admitted it ‘relies on the care given by many of its school based staff’ - but is unwilling to recognise the contribution they make in providing a fully inclusive education service within
In the school spring term UNISON Schools Project staff visited schools in the County to talk to Learning Support Staff about the Education Workforce Council (EWC) registration process and answers the questions put forward by the LSA’s.
YOUR UNION
It was a successful round of visits, keeping both UNISON members and non members up to date, on the process of registering. Registration
Contact us:
It is UNISON’s view that this statement in no way covers the routine, regular administration of medicines that enable many individuals with health needs to participate fully in school life. We believe that to 'provide advice' in a child’s health
development does not constitute administering a programme of medication. Furthermore, attending to personal needs should be interpreted in a learning context and not in a health context. In addition, there has been no recognition in the Council's response about other members of support staff who regularly administer medicines. In many schools it is the school secretary or administrator that is carrying out this role on a regular basis. UNISON has therefore lodged a formal collective grievance on behalf of the UNISON members who may be requested to undertake the administration of medicines in schools.
City & County of Swansea Unison Branch successfully negotiated with the Council Officers, to get them to agree to pay the £15 registration fee, for all Learning Support Staff who are now required to registered, with the EWC.
Conduct and Practice training sessions for all Learning Support Staff. It is vital for LSA’s to know the EWC Code inside and out, as this is what they will be working towards, as set down by the EWC.
Vital
If you would like to book a session for your school you can call Sandra Davies-Perkes (Local Organiser – Unison Schools Project) on 07961 475579
The School Project team will be out again visiting schools across Swansea County area during the summer term to provide EWC Code of Professional
Unison Office, Rm 153-G, The Guildhall, Swansea 01792 635271
unison@swansea.gov.uk
Branch Secretary: Mike Davies / Asst. Secretary: Andrea Thomas Unison has over 100 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. SENIOR STEWARD SOCIAL SERVICES ALISON DAVIES 01792 636351 / 07941757853 FINANCE CONTACT RHYDIAN PRISMICK 01792 635803 / 07835757517 SENIOR STEWARD REGENERATION (OUTDOOR LEISURE) JOHN LLEWELLYN 07920560208 SENIOR STEWARD REGENERATION (INDOOR LEISURE) ROGER OWEN 07847942458
Sports & Social website: www.suss.me.uk
SENIOR STEWARDS ENVIRONMENT IAN ALEXANDER 07584505793 PAUL WATKINS (CLYDACH) 07572153750 PAT LOPEZ (CAVE ST) 07557560097 EDUCATION CONTACT JOHN AUSTIN 07796275039 HOUSING CONTACTS SALLYANNE TAYLOR 07825401711 ALICE GREENLEES 01792 457025 / 07773509299
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.