UNISON to consult on industrial action over abolition of schools support staff pay body

UNISON, the UK’s leading public sector trade union, today said it would be consulting members on taking industrial action over the abolition of the School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB).The body, which was years in the making, was set up to develop consistency in pay, conditions and job roles for schools support staff including teaching assistants, special needs staff, nursery nurses, school secretaries, caretakers, technicians and schools meals staff.Christina McAnea, UNISON Head of Education, said: “This is a bitter blow to the mainly women, overwhelmingly low paid, hard working and loyal support staff in schools. UNISON will be consulting our members on taking industrial action as a matter of urgency.“The coalition’s consultation process was a sham. It was obvious the government had made up its mind, right from the beginning, that schools support staff are not worthy of national pay and conditions. “We are calling for an immediate equality impact assessment, as it is likely this move will hit women hard. The government must also explain how it intends to deliver George Osborne’s headline grabbing, £250 boost for the lowest paid. It is a disgrace that they have so far refused to guarantee this pledge for schools support staff.”Notes for editors:1. The School Support Staff Negotiating Body was established under the ASCL ACT 2009 and is similar to the Pay Review Body for Teachers. The body has been developing a national pay framework of pay and conditions to cover around 500,000 school support staff in England. The employers on the body are the Local Government Employers, The Foundation and Aided Schools National Association (FASNA) , the Catholic Education Service and The Church of England. 2. UNISON is the main union for school support staff with more than 200,000 members, whose jobs include, teaching assistants, nursery staff, school secretaries, school business managers, school meals staff, technicians, librarians and special needs workers.3. Around 70% of staff are only paid during term time and get no pay for school holidays, the average pay for a teaching assistant is under £10,000 per year.4. More than three quarters of schools were closed when school staff took strike action over pensions in 2008.

Pension proposals - UNISON response

Commenting on the government’s pensions proposals today, Glyn Jenkins, UNISON Head of Pensions, said:"We believe all employers should contribute to their employees pensions and the fact that currently 2/3rds of UK employers let down their staff by paying nothing is a national disgrace.“But the proposals of allowing employers to contribute just 3% on a band of earnings, phased in over a number of years, is far too low to tackle pensioner poverty or provide relief to the taxpayers.“It takes a combined contribution rate of 20% and many years’ service to secure a decent pension and today’s Government proposals fall very short of the mark. It is peddling false-hope that somehow NEST will also come to the aid of the taxpayer. If employers continue to get away with paying such low contributions, good schemes will wither away and the taxpayer will have to pick up the benefits bill.”

UNISON response to Baby P report

UNISON, the UK’s largest public service union, today warned of the danger of cuts to council budgets, in the wake of the latest report into the tragic death of Baby Peter. Cutting so called “back office staff” could have serious consequences for social workers, who want to spend more time with families and less with paperwork.Helga Pile, UNISON National Officer for Social Workers, said:“Social workers tell us that they want more time to spend face to face with families, to see the true picture of what is happening in the home. Instead they are burdened with high case-loads, hampered by staff vacancies and overwhelmed with paperwork.“UNISON believes that social workers should have at least 2 years’ experience before they are allocated to child protection work. And that two social workers should make home visits - one to concentrate on the adults and the other to spend time with the child.“Today’s report into baby Peter’s tragic death must act as a grim warning about the potential danger of what cuts will do to vital council services and jobs. Cutting so called “back-office’ jobs will make social work even harder.”

Members disappointed at E.ON green jobs decision

(25/10/10) UNISON members working for power company E.ON have expressed their disappointment that the company has abandoned plans to build a new power station using revolutionary carbon capture and storage technology at Kingsnorth in Kent.The union believes that one of the main reasons for the decision is the government's failure to provide long-term certainty around funding for development of the technology. E.ON has said that depressed energy prices make the plant uneconomical.The union has long backed carbon capture and storage as a key technology in addressing the challenges of climate change and energy security.UNISON also believes that this technology, which is still to be tested on a commercial scale, could lead to a green jobs bonanza and establish the UK as a world leader in an industry of the future.Although the government committed to one plant in the spending review, the previous government had committed to four.UNISON head of utilities Steve Bloomfield said: "It's obviously disappointing that E.ON have pulled the plug on this development. "The commitment to develop one plant in the spending review is welcome, but the government needs to raise its game significantly on this issue if we are to keep the lights on and ensure we are generating the green and decent jobs of the future in the UK."

Cameron Speech - UNISON response

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said: “The truth is that Cameron has no strategy for growth, or for recovery. He got it wrong when the banks failed, by opposing the bailout, and he’s got it wrong now. “Cameron and his coalition’s cuts will see hundreds of businesses that rely on public sector contracts shut their doors, with half a million private sector workers losing their jobs. Economic output is predicted to dip by a whopping £46 billion. “The coalition’s own figures show nearly half a million public sector workers will lose their jobs. Adding upwards of a million more people to the dole queues now spells danger. There are, on average, already more than four unemployed people chasing every vacant post across the country. The situation is even worse in some parts of the country, with 31 people chasing every job in Hackney, and 25 in East Renfrewshire, Scotland. “This scramble for jobs will see the dole queues rise to record levels. Demand in the economy will plummet, so will the tax take, but the benefits bill will sky rocket. Some of the poorest regions will be hardest hit. “This is a recipe for disaster, for a decade of downturn, which will see inequalities rise, public services crumble, and consign a generation of young people to the scrap heap.”

UNISON hits back at plans to create London 'super-council'

UNISON, the union representing over 7,000 employees in the three London Boroughs – Westminster City Council, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea – has hit back at reports that the councils are to forge ahead with plans to merge council services. The go-ahead comes in response to the deep cuts announced by the Government in Wednesday’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).The CSR will see local government budgets slashed by 26% over the next four years. These cuts will place jobs and services, in particular to the most vulnerable in society, at risk.The union is angry that it learnt about the merger green-light, not from the employers, but from the press. Linda Perks, UNISON Regional Secretary for Greater London, today expressed the union’s concerns for the employees and local people in the three Boroughs, if plans to merge all services under a single Chief Executive become a reality, saying:“The merger plans are bound to mean that services and standards will fall, as decision making becomes even more removed from local people. In addition, any mergers are bound to lead to significant job losses. This will add more London public sector employees to the dole queues and damage the Capitals already fragile economy.“This announcement clearly demonstrates that the Government’s CSR really means Cuts Strangle Recovery! UNISON demands that these three Boroughs stop their political posturing and start to talk to the Trade Unions who represent some very worried employees across West London”.The announcement from the three boroughs, reflects a very clear intention to save up to £100m and to slash the number of employees providing vital public services, but it also says that there will be no reduction in the number of councillors or how democratic accountability will be maintained. Linda Perks, went on to say “Whilst services will be hit and employees will join the dole queues the Councillors will continue to be able to claim their expenses! Their jobs aren’t at risk! Where’s the democracy in that?” Earlier this week UNISON, released detailed analysis showing that on average, there are more than 4 unemployed people for every advertised job vacancy in England, Scotland and Wales. In Westminster the figure is 2.7, in Hammersmith and Fulham 5.3 and in Kensington and Chelsea 10.9.

Con-dem Government condemning country to 'dismal, downward spiral'

At the “All Together for Public Services” protest rally at Central Hall Westminster, Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, the UK’s largest public services union, will warn the Chancellor that the unions will not go away “we will be back”. He will say:“The Tories and Lib Dems are intent on dragging our country into a dismal, downward spiral of despair. They have a one-track policy, which is an obsession with cuts and they are ignoring credible alternatives. They should be building for recovery not knocking-down hope for our future. For young people whose opportunities are being stifled before they even have a chance to get into university or into training, to get an apprenticeship or a job.“The truth is they are not interested in alternatives. “They don’t care if the poor, the elderly, the vulnerable are the targets of cuts. They don’t care if hundreds of thousands of families suffer because they no longer have a breadwinner. “If they did, they would see that they could claw back billions of pounds by taxing the banks that caused the recession in the first place. They would stop pussy-footing round with a “voluntary code of conduct” on tax avoidance by the banks. Make it compulsory – They shouldn’t be doing it – and they are robbing the country of vital revenue needed to get it back on its feet. “I am warning the Government today - the public can only take so much, working people will only take so much, and this union has already had enough. Today, up and down the country, UNISON members are holding rallies and marches and lobbying their MPs.“And make no mistake. If the Government doesn’t listen to us today, they won’t have heard the last of us. If George Osborne’s cuts go through – cuts that could mean a death sentence for our services and our communities – then we will be back.“For every one of us in this room today, we will bring a hundred more. We’ll march in our thousands ad we’ll vote in our millions.“We will unite and fight-back against the cuts. - the future of our public services are at stake and I will not let this Government set fire to them.

'Cowardly' Tory MPs hide from their constituents

Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, today branded Tory MPs as “cowards” for turning their backs on their constituents, to join a last-minute meeting convened by David Cameron.Dave Prentis said:“It is a sad day for democracy in this country. I am outraged that Tory MPs have turned their backs on their constituents, when so many have travelled hundreds of miles, to see them.“Many had made appointments months in advance and are armed with facts and figures about the damage that cuts will do to local people and services.“MPs should not be running from the truth and hiding in a meeting with Cameron. They should have the guts to come face to face with the constituents that they were elected to represent.“I am warning the Tories that they can run, but they can’t hide. UNSON members will track down their MPs and lobby them in their own constituency offices, until they get their message across.”

Banks to knock £19 billion off their tax bill despite taxpayer bail out

Despite being rescued by taxpayers during the crash, UK banks will avoid paying £19 billion of tax on future profits by offsetting their losses during the financial crisis against their tax bills. This is equivalent to more than £1,100 for every family in the UK, a TUC report says today (Monday).
The TUC report - The Corporate Tax Gap - says that as well as benefitting from an £850 billion bailout from taxpayers and the Bank of England during the recession, banks are able to offset their £19 billion of tax losses between 2007 and 2009 against paying tax on future profits.
The report, authored by tax specialist Richard Murphy, has calculated this double subsidy from the accounts of five UK high street banks - HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds TSB and HBOS (later Lloyds Banking Group) - and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) data.
The Corporate Tax Gap warns that banks could soon be paying a lower rate of tax than small businesses. The corporate tax gap - the difference between the rate of tax set by the Government and the actual rate companies pay - has grown by an average of 0.5 per cent a year over the last decade. Between 2000 and 2009, the effective corporation tax rate fell from 28 per cent to 21 per cent, much deeper than the headline rate cut from 30 per cent to 28 per cent, says the report.
With the Government planning to reduce corporation tax to 24 per cent, the UK's largest companies, including banks, will soon be paying an effective tax rate of 17 per cent - three per cent lower than small businesses, who are less able to exploit loopholes and therefore pay a headline rate of 20 per cent. As a result, the UK will soon have a regressive corporation tax regime, says the report.
The TUC has calculated that the banks' £19 billion double subsidy could pay for the following cuts between now and 2015:
switching the indexation of benefits from RPI to CPI (£5.84 billion);
housing benefit (£1.77 billion);
tax credits (£3.22 billion);
child benefit for higher rate taxpayers (£3 billion);
estimated cuts to the science research budget (£3 billion); and,
estimated cuts in HMRC resources to tackle tax avoidance (£2.1 billion).
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Banks caused the global financial crash and triggered the recession that produced the deficit. Yet not only did they take almost a trillion pounds from taxpayers to bail them out, they are now using the losses caused by their irresponsibility to cut their tax bills for years to come.
'The Government's bank levy is small change compared to this huge loss as the business-as-usual bonus levels show.
'It's double bubble for the banks, but huge cuts, job losses and VAT increases for ordinary families.
'Small firms have every right to be angry too. Not only are they finding it hard to get credit from the banks, soon they will be paying more tax on their profits than the banks and other big companies.'

Where are the jobs? Says UNISON

Detailed analysis by UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector trade union, shows that on average, there are more than 4* unemployed people for every advertised job vacancy in England, Scotland and Wales. London is one of the hardest hit regions, with more than 31 unemployed people for every job advertised in Hackney, and 18 for every vacant job in Lewisham.The union says that these figures spell danger for the economy and undermine hopes for a recovery. In the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) this week, the Chancellor is set to outline plans that could lead to 725,000** public sector workers in the UK losing their jobs. The knock on effect to the private sector will be huge. A recent report by PwC predicted that public spending cuts could see 500,000 private sector workers losing their jobs, and economic output falling by £46 billion.The analysis blows out of the water coalition claims that private sector growth will compensate for public sector job losses. Both sectors are being poisoned by the cuts, which will swell dole queues, and lead to mass, long-term unemployment. When large numbers of people stop spending, the economy as a whole suffers as demand plummets, and more people struggle to make ends meet on the dole. The threat of a double dip recession, and all the dangers that this entails, is looming large.The benefits bill for supporting these workers will run into billions - for public sector workers alone, increased benefits, and decreased tax payments could cost the Treasury £15 billion***. For private sector workers, the bill will add billions more.Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:“The coalition has got it wrong. By only having a strategy for cuts, it has no plans for growth and recovery. Their public spending cuts are poisoning the private sector and condemning the country to widespread, long-term unemployment and low growth. This means misery for millions of families and for taxpayer’s who will be left to pick up the long-term bill. “Even now, before the drastic spending cuts have hit home, there are not enough jobs to go around. On average, there are more than 4 unemployed people for every vacant job across the country.“No sector is safe from the Chancellor’s axe. Despite his claims, there will be no refuge in the private sector for the 725,000 public service workers who face losing their jobs. Private industry will be suffering too, with more than half a million jobs set to go because of the cuts.“These spending cuts are intrinsically unfair - they hit women hardest, and are deeply regressive. They deliver the biggest blow to those on low incomes, and least able to take it.“Make no mistake - these cuts are driven by ideology not necessity. The Chancellor does have a choice in his Comprehensive Spending Review next week - one that would make a real difference to our struggling economy.“Tens of billions**** could be saved without jobs being lost or services being cut, if the government cracked down on the tax avoiders and tax havens. Raising a Robin Hood Tax on the banks, making taxation fairer, or putting a stop to plans to replace Trident would save billions more, at the same time as safeguarding our recovery.“We must all fight the cuts for the sake of the economy and the future of Britain’s public and private sectors.

Health and safety myths put workers' lives at risk

UNISON, the UK’s largest union, today warned that Lord Young’s review into health and safety failed to distinguish between the very real problems of health and safety at work and the “ambulance chasers” who try to make money from peoples’ misfortune.The union said that many of the proposals in the report had nothing to do with occupational health and safety. And, where they do relate to workplace health and safety, the more practical ones either already exist or are in the process of being developed. (e.g. online risk assessment tool, register of consultants etc). Hope Daley, UNISON’s Head of Health and Safety said:“Lord Young has missed the opportunity to tackle the myths circulated about occupational health and safety which is damaging to both employers and employees. Many of these myths have taken root because of the ambulance chasers who seek to make money out of peoples’ misfortune. This simple failure could turn back the clock on health and safety and increase the number of accidents and injury to workers. “Despite the review, Lord Young shows no awareness of the problems caused by occupational ill health and no real understanding of the level of injury or ill health in schools, classrooms or offices. Schools and offices have very high levels of stress related illness, and many people suffer from arm, back and neck injuries. Between them these are responsible for around three quarters of work related sickness absence. “This report is really only interested in freeing business from bureaucratic burdens and disregards the value of workers’ health and safety.”

Dismay at Hutton report on pensions

The government should increase employee pension
contributions immediately, raise the retirement
age of public sector workers and end their
final salary schemes over the longer term. These
are some of the recommendations of Lord Hutton
in his interim report on public sector pensions.
But Hutton insisted claims from employers and
right wing pressure groups of “gold-plated” pensions
were wide of the mark. The average public
sector pension is £7,800 a year, his report said.
Unions were unhappy with the former Labour
cabinet minister’s recommendations. TUC general
secretary Brendan Barber said: “Public servants
will be angered by the review’s call for them to pay
more for less generous pensions.
“Public sector workers are already facing job cuts,
a pay freeze and increased workloads as they are
expected to do more with less. They have already
had the value of their pensions cut by the switch
to CPI indexing, which will slice a little off their
pension every year.”
“But the precise details of what will happen are
as yet far from clear, and on important issues John
Hutton has firmly pushed the ball back into the
government’s court. These should be negotiated
with unions rather than imposed from above.”
In the final report, expected to be delivered in time
for the 2011 Budget, Hutton will consider a range of
alternatives to current final salary pension arrangements,
including a career-average scheme.
Hutton’s report also acknowledges that the overall
cost of "unfunded" public sector pensions, including
the civil service scheme, is expected to fall from
1.9% of GDP in 2010-11 to 1.4% of GDP by 2060.
According to the PCS civil service union, the affordability
of public sector pensions is illustrated
by the fact that the cost of tax relief on pension
contributions each year is much greater than the
net cost of public sector pensions. One quarter of
that tax relief — almost £10 billion a year — goes to
the 1% of the population who are paid more than
£150,000 a year.

www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/hutton_pensionsinterim_071010.pdf
www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-18609-f0.cfm
www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/5555B2EB-7139-
4784-A504437D73235883

UNISON warning over asbestos in schools

At a meeting with Lord Hill, schools minister, today (14 Oct) UNISON, the UK's leading public sector trade union, reiterated its call for urgent action on dangerous asbestos in schools.Estimates vary, but more than 14,000 schools in the UK are thought to contain asbestos*. Over time, and without proper management, the safety of asbestos declines, and dangerous levels have been recorded during daily events, such as when children slam classroom doors.The withdrawal of Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funds has condemned many teachers, children and support staff to learn and work in buildings riddled with asbestos for even longer.UNISON is also lending its support to Waltham Forest Council, who had BSF funding for four schools containing asbestos cancelled, and is seeking judicial review to challenge the decision.Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, the UK's largest public sector union, said:"UNISON welcomes Lord Hill‚s recognition of the need to tackle this problem urgently. We look forward to working with him to getting to grips with the true extent of the problem, by playing our part in the joint working group due to start next month.“Put simply, there should be no place for asbestos in our schools. Children, staff and parents should have the right to know they are learning in a safe and healthy environment. But asbestos - especially without proper management - is anything but safe."It is vital that the Government recognises that asbestos in schools is a health hazard and that they should take urgent action to have it removed, and make sure it is properly managed. "With more schools being taken out of local authority control, UNISON is deeply concerned that standards of asbestos management - which are already seriously failing - will decline even further. Schools will not get the help they need to deal with this dangerous problem, and this will sadly lead only to a more children and staff losing their lives."The safety of students and staff should be paramount. Asbestos claims many lives every year, but it is often many years later that the consequences of exposure become clear. UNISON will continue to campaign hard to rid our schools of this hidden danger."Earlier this week, the joint-union campaign got a boost from the Chairman of the United Asbestos Training Association, who expressed serious concern over asbestos management in schools, including training for staff. UNISON and the other education unions will be launching a major survey of asbestos in schools in October.

Public spending cuts poisoning recovery, warns UNISON

UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector union, has again called on the Government to “think again” about public spending cuts, for the sake of the whole economy. The call comes in the wake of a report from insolvency firm Begbies Traynor, showing that 50,000 private companies are at risk because of the cuts.Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, said:“The Government’s public spending cuts are poisoning the country’s chance of economic recovery. They are putting hundreds of thousands of jobs in the private sector at risk. The public and private sectors are inter-dependent and by hitting one you damage the other.“Today’s red flag warning, comes on top of a report yesterday from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which put nearly a million jobs at risk. The Government cannot ignore the growing body of evidence that their spending cuts are deeply damaging to both the private and public sector.“Before it is too late the Government must re-think its obsession with cutting public spending. There are real alternatives. Clamping down on the tax dodgers, taking action on the tax havens, and getting the banks to pay their fair share towards the recovery by imposing a Robin Hood Tax would raise billions.”

Unemployment figures - UNISON response

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:“This is the false calm before the storm. Next week the Chancellor will lay the groundwork for adding 750,000 public sector workers to the dole queues. The knock on effects to the private sector will be huge. PwC predicts nearly a million jobs could be lost, and economic output will plummet by £46 billion.“The Chancellor must return to the drawing board. His plans will wreak havoc with the recovery and drag the country back into recession. Millions will be condemned to long term unemployment, there will be no private sector jobs for those who have lost their public sector jobs, both sectors will meet each other in the dole queues.“Huge numbers of people unemployed will be a huge drain on the public purse. Less people working means less tax being paid. Local economies too will miss out on vital spending going through their tills.“The consequences for society will be huge. The cuts will be deeply regressive, hitting women, the elderly and lone parents hardest. Young people will suffer, and the threat of a lost generation looms large.“It is a disgrace that the Chancellor is ploughing ahead with his damaging plans when there are real alternatives. Clamping down on the tax dodgers, taking action on the tax havens, and getting the banks to pay their fair share towards the recovery by imposing a Robin Hood Tax would raise billions”.

EHRC report - UNISON response

UNISON, the UK’s leading public sector trade union, today reiterated its call for action to tackle the persistent gender pay gap, after a new report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)*, revealed the extent of pay discrimination in Britain.The union also warned that fairness will nosedive as a result of public spending cuts, hitting women, ethnic minorities, and the disabled hard. Bronwyn McKenna, UNISON Director of Organising and Membership, said:“More than 40 years after laws were passed to protect women, it is a disgrace that mothers without qualifications can still expect a 58% loss of earnings over their lifetime.“Women need action to stamp out stubborn pay discrimination. Boosting transparency, having regular gender pay audits, and updating the law to make it easier for women to challenge their pay, would be giant leaps towards fairness.“But just as women need more protection, the coalition government is consulting on watering down existing equality rules. This would be a huge step backwards.“The state of fairness in the UK will nosedive as the affects of public spending cuts hit home. Women will bear the brunt of the cuts, as the main groups of people working in, and making use of, public services. Vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities and the disabled are also well represented in the public sector workforce, and will suffer as jobs and services they rely on disappear."UNISON is calling on the government to think again about its damaging hard and fast cuts plan, which not only threatens our economic recovery, but could turn back the clock on fairness in our society."*EHRC report ? How fair is Britain?

TUC calls for Robin Hood Taxes across Europe

Commenting on the publication today (Thursday) of a European Commission report on the future taxation of the financial sector, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:
'The Commission has responded to public pressure. This is a much more positive approach to financial transaction taxes (FTTs) than we have seen in the past.
'But European Commission support for a global FTT should not let the EU and member states off the hook of implementing their own transaction taxes.
'IMF research shows that not only is this perfectly feasible but that 16 G20 countries already have some form of FTT. European governments like France, Germany and Spain - and of course the UK - should over-rule the over-cautious Brussels bureaucrats.'
The Commission report is to be given to European finance ministers next week.

At The Guildhall

West Midlands UNISON Battle Bus At The Shirehall

Fighting fund to beat the cuts

UNISON will set up a special fighting fund to campaign and organise against the coalition government's cuts agenda, the national executive council agreed today.General secretary Dave Prentis said: "This is the biggest challenge our union has faced."The government has made a political choice to take a sledgehammer to our public services and to slash spending. UNISON is determined to show that there is an alternative to this vicious cuts agenda."It is not just a question of public service workers – just as many private sector jobs are at risk, and every single family will be affected by cuts to our vital local services."But this is our core work – it is the reason our union is here: to defend our members; to organise and to campaign for public services. This fighting fund will support our local branches and regions in the campaign over the next five years."The NEC heard a wide ranging report on the campaigning, organising and mobilising work the union has carried out over the summer under the Million Voices for Public Services banner.This included political interventions at the party conferences and in local elections; providing a range of communications and campaign support tools for local activists; mobilising campaign activity around the regions to support the ETUC day of action and gearing up for the TUC lobby and rally of Parliament on 19 October, the eve of the coalition government’s comprehensive spending review announcement.During autumn, the union will build a series of local campaigns across the UK that inspire and engage activists and members in alliance with PCS and other unions, service users and community groups leading up to the TUC national demonstration in March 2011 and the elections in May.The executive also heard that:
UNISON is recruiting well, with this year showing the strongest August recruitment rate for seven years;
with inflation running at up 5%, members are increasingly facing a real-terms pay cut as employers seek to impose pay freezes. Negotiation and organising around pay is continuing in all sectors;
UNISON has launched a major campaign against government proposals to restructure the NHS and has sought a judicial review;
equal pay continues to be a major issue for the union. An increasing number of settlements are being agreed with employers and a number of long-running cases are due to settle in the near future;
the presidential charity for the year will be a Make a Child Smile scheme, which is administered by UNISON Welfare. Regions and branches will be encouraged to raise funds to take children from disadvantaged families on days out to give them a day to remember;
the NEC agreed to send best wishes to Swindon local government branch, which is taking industrial action against employer proposals remove unsocial hours payments.

David Cameron's speech - UNISON response

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said:“David Cameron is attempting to rewrite history. His party bitterly opposed the recovery package devised by Labour and followed by governments throughout the world. He is turning his firepower onto public services to pay for that crisis, and jeopardizing the recovery in the process.“There has been no more flesh on the bones of the Big Society idea, it is still the big cop out.”

Hutton response - UNISON response

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said: “Our key priority is to make sure that our members’ pension schemes, that they pay into all their working lives, remain sustainable and affordable and that there is no damaging race to the bottom. We will seek to maintain, using all means possible, the agreements reached two years ago to make our public service schemes sustainable and also protect existing members of the scheme.“This is an interim report, and UNISON will continue making the case for public sector pensions throughout the course of the review. “It is only right that the report recognises that public sector pensions are not gold-plated. We are pleased that Hutton recommends keeping a defined benefit scheme, but we are adamant that the final salary scheme should be retained.“There is a real danger that taking a career average to calculate pensions will see the low paid getting less in their retirement – especially as the government has switched from using the RPI to using the CPI to calculate pensions. “Public sector workers already pay a sizeable amount into their pension schemes year in, year out. Many of our members would struggle to pay more. Council workers, including home carers, librarians, social workers and dinner ladies, pay in 6.4% of their wages, while NHS workers pay an average of 6.6%. “Plans to make public sector staff work until they drop will hit the low paid hard. For many public sector staff, working longer is not an option. Many nurses, home carers, paramedics and refuse collectors are already forced into early retirement because of the physical nature of their jobs, and the damage it does to their health. “It is time the government turned their attention to the private sector, where two thirds of employers don’t provide a single penny towards their employees’ pensions, forcing taxpayers into picking up a massive long-term benefits bill.”

Osborne speech - UNISON reaction

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, reacting to Chancellor George Osborne’s speech to the Conservative Party Conference, said:“The Chancellor’s fine words about all being in this together are not being matched by action. He was clearly setting the scene for the huge cuts in public spending to pay for the banks’ failure that he will announce in the comprehensive spending review. It’s nonsense to claim that draining our schools and hospitals of funds will liberate them.“He talks of fairness, but all his announcements are about capping and cutting benefits. And his rhetoric, about asking the richest to pay their fair share, rings hollow because he fails to spell out either how he will do that or what that “fair share” means.“He may have made the right noises for his own Party conference, and played to petty ignorance about people on benefit, but the British people will take no comfort from this speech and have reason to fear what is round the corner. “Public spending cuts will hit the poor, the sick and the vulnerable and will have a devastating impact on local economies and local small businesses that rely on the public sector for survival.”