UNISON met with the Council Leadership earlier this week to discuss the budget for 2016/17.
Your UNISON Branch Secretary, Paddy Cleary, had previously made clear to the Council that staff had already made a major contribution to savings in previous years. We have seen significant job losses and cuts to our terms and conditions over the past 3 years, including a 4 day pay cut for all staff.
Despite this, the Council has again tabled options for further attacks on the jobs and living standards of UNISON members.
Terms and Conditions
- Four days unpaid leave for a further three years (affects all employees)
- Removal of contractual enhancements for evening and weekend working (affects 730 employees)
- Removal of essential car user allowance (affects 460 employees)
Severance Scheme
- Removal of the enhanced scheme with a proposal to use the statutory scheme with no multiplier and which has a weekly cap of £450 per week
DASS
- Girtrell Court – loss of 36.1 fte employees
- Care Navigators – loss of 12 fte employees
Regeneration and Environment
- Highways – School Crossing Patrol – loss of 9 fte employees
Transformation and Resources
- Dog Fouling – Enforcement Team - loss of 6 fte employees
- Community Patrol – ASB Provision – loss of 2 fte employees
- Community Patrol – loss of 2 fte employees
- Occupational Health – OHIO – loss of 1 fte employee
- Libraries – loss of 13.38 fte employees
- Welfare Rights Unit – loss of 3 fte employees
Neighbourhoods and Engagement
- Communications, Advertising and Films – loss of 1 fte employee
The proposals for engagement and consultation include:
- Discretionary Housing Payments and Advice
- Highways Maintenance
- Leisure Centres
- Golf Courses
- Parks
- Pest Control Service
- Garden Waste Service
UNISON believes that the threat to force further pay cuts on our members is not acceptable.
Paddy Cleary, Branch Secretary, said: “Our members have suffered enough over the past 3 years. The Council Leadership seems to think that they can continually put their hands into our members pockets to pay for this Tory governments cuts. We need to tell them that enough is enough. UNISON will resist these further attacks.”
Formal consultation on the proposals will begin on 18th December and run through to mid-February.
We need to use this time to convince the Council that UNISON members will not stand for further job losses and pay cuts.
UNISON has called a lobby of the next Council meeting
at 5.30pm on Thursday, 17 December 2015.
We call on every UNISON member to attend.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Published on: December 10, 2015