UNISON Rotherham Health Newsletter January 2018

UNISON VOICE UNISON Rotherham Health Service Branch

Rotherham Health Services Branch

Winter 2018

A New Year Message from the Branch Secretary Last year was very busy for your UNISON Stewards. Records show that we have provided advice/ representation to 160 individual members in addition to 9 group consultations affecting various departments within the Trust. For the majority of the year we have had 7 active stewards.

Remember your stewards’ work on an unpaid volunteer basis. This year on average they have each undertaken an additional 18 hours per month of unpaid work over and above their substantive posts.

We do appreciate your frustration at times when we have not been

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Contact your Branch Tel: 01709 424201 Email: RFT.Unsion@rothgen.nhs.uk

Web:

unison-rotherhamhealth.org.uk

available, but staffing pressures within the Trust does affect Line Managers’ ability to release your Stewards to provide this valuable service.

It is also noted that a substantial part of these duties have actually been undertaken in the Stewards own time i.e. on their days off.

We continue to look out for our members’ best interests and are actively engaged with the Trust in such things as the monthly JPF and the job matching panels. We have also; along with our colleagues countrywide, campaigned hard for the pay cap to be removed and

having succeeded here are now fighting for a pay rise which reflects the hard work and dedication provided by you to the wider community. We are in challenging times and as your Branch Secretary I again commit myself and my colleagues to meeting those challenges to the best of our abilities. Wishing you all the best for the New Year. Lynn Monk

Consultation, Consultation, Consultation There are several consultations and restructures happening in the Trust at the moment including ones in Maternity and Theatres where we are representing a large number of members The NHS is under funded and under threat and one of the symptoms of this is that many departments and hospitals are going through changes to the organisation.

However this shouldn’t mean that the lowest paid and hardest working staff should be the ones to shoulder the burden. UNISON are busy making sure that our members are fully represented and supported throughout this and that

your collective voice is heard in Rotherham Foundation trust.

Collective bargaining is a vital part of what a union does.

This is why it is important that you and your colleagues are in a trade union. If just you are in the union we can represent you as an individual but if you and all your colleagues are in the union you can all act and speak together to improve your working life. Talk to your colleagues about joining a union or talk to us about becoming a workplace rep so you can help be part of the work we do representing you.

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Rotherham Health Services Branch of UNISON

2017 Just a few things the Branch Got Up To!

Christmas

Fair Stall

Christmas Fair Stall: Santa and his elf Bra nch Secretary Lynn Monk

th Maria and Gill with the Branch wrea Day orial Mem ers for Work

Pay Up Now Campaign Stal l

Rotherham Health Branch Donation Activity At the Branch we receive many requests for assistance with good causes and each month these are discussed at our Branch meeting. Within our Branch budget we do set aside a fund for such requests and these are given on behalf of our members. This year we have contributed to the following:-

A freezer for the patients of the Community Hospital; sponsorship of Jacob Holden who has competed in the Junior Olympics for in line skating; Wickersley Youth football programme; dementia dolls and knitted Twiddlemuffs to support the work of our lead dementia nurse Beth Goss-Hill; the Foodbank at Hope

Church Rotherham; Mums In Need – supporting victims of domestic violence; Serekunda hospital and school project in Gambia which is UNISON’s national appeal this year; There For You – UNISON’s national welfare fund for vulnerable members; Asbestos Victim Support Group; Rotherham Holiday Aid.

UNISON Newsletter

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Tribunal Fees: UNISON wins big for members and all working people The Supreme Court – the UK’s highest court – has unanimously ruled that the government was acting unlawfully and unconstitutionally when it introduced the fees four years ago.

The decision means anyone who has been treated illegally or unfairly at work will no longer have to pay to take their employers to court – as a direct result of UNISON’s legal challenge.

The government will also have to refund more than £27m to the thousands of people charged for taking claims to tribunals since July 2013, when fees were introduced by then Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling.

Anyone in England, Scotland and Wales wanting to pursue a case against their employer has had to find as much as £1,200. This has been a huge expense for many lowpaid employees, says UNISON. Reacting to the decision, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “The government is not above the law. But when ministers introduced fees they were disregarding laws many centuries old, and showing little concern for employees seeking justice following illegal treatment at work.

“It’s a major victory for employees everywhere. UNISON took the case

on behalf of anyone who’s ever been wronged at work, or who might be in future. Unscrupulous employers no longer have the upper hand.

“These unfair fees have let law-breaking bosses off the hook these past four years, and left badly treated staff with no choice but to put up or shut up.

“We’ll never know how many people missed out because they couldn’t afford the expense of fees.

But at last this tax on justice has been lifted.”

The decision marks the end of a four-year fight by UNISON to overturn the government’s introduction of fees.

Budget News: Public services “gasping for air” There’s no actual money on the table!

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: “The Chancellor says he wants to make Britain ‘fit for the future’ – but his deeply disappointing Budget has left public services gasping for air.

“All public sector workers needed a real pay rise today, not yet another let down. Healthcare assistants, care workers, and other public servants struggling to get by can’t survive on wages that bump along at the bottom while prices soar.

“This was a Budget to match the dull and gloom of a November day.

The hopes of NHS staff may have been raised slightly, but there’s no actual money on the table.

“This is still a long way from the across the board pay rise needed to save our public services. The NHS

is important, and so is every other part of the public sector.

“Dedicated public service employees deserve so much more than pats on the back. It’s time they and the hospitals, schools and councils they work for saw the colour of the Chancellor’s money.

It’s time for the government to pay up now.”

Public health issue?

This will impact on vulnerable groups in marginalised communities accessing community health services. It may also affect people who are entitled to free NHS care as they may feel discriminated against and some groups of people may be unfairly asked to prove identity.

All of this will cause public health issues as people will be discouraged from accessing healthcare.

UNISON has always opposed this on the grounds that it will affect public health, ultimately costing the NHS more and it also puts NHS staff in an inappropriate position.

UNISON is continuing to work with Doctors of the World and the TUC to campaign against these and to lobby the government. Already the campaign has succeeded in getting school nurses and health visitors exempt, protecting vulnerable children from stigmatisation.

If this has impacted you or you are feeling that you are being asked to work in a way that you feel is inappropriate to your health care role please contact the branch for support.

NEW YEAR QUIZ – YOUR CHANCE TO WIN £75.00 Into which sea does the Nile flow?

Three continents lie on the Tropic of Capricorn, South America is one, name any of the other two In American currency 10 cents make a what?

Afrikaans was developed from which European language?

An Ortanique is a cross between a tangerine and what other fruit?

What Italian word for “scratched drawing” can be found on walls all over the world?

What musical features “Some Enchanted Evening”?

What was the name of the first manned lunar landing mission in 1969?

Which boxer was nicknamed “The Dark Destroyer”?

What was the name of Ritchie Valens’ girlfriend?

What is the procedure called where an anaesthetic is injected close to the spinal cord?

What poisonous oily liquid occurs naturally in tobacco leaves?

Who had his first UK top ten hit with “Wichita Lineman?

Which sign of the Zodiac is represented by the Scales?

In which country was Rudyard Kipling born?

What is the gemstone for September?

What instrument has been nicknamed the “Mississippi saxophone”?

One and a half litres of champagne is known as what?

In alphabetical order name the three particles that make up an atom What is the common name of the “Aurora Borealis”?

What does the first letter of each answer spell out?

Send in your answers to the UNISON Branch Office – A Level Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust for a chance to win £75.

Closing Date 28th February 2018 Name Department Contact Telephone Number

Rotherham Health Services Branch

GOOD LUCK!