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Hi Everyone
We hope you are all doing well and having a good working week so far. It’s been another busy week and so we’ve got a few different updates for you all today.
Council Budget and Members Meeting
Earlier this week we emailed our members who work for the Council regarding the impact of the council’s budget proposals. We have this week had a meeting of our stewards to discuss these budget options. There are a number of areas that give us initial cause for concern and at the very least require further information on what exactly is being proposed. A number of these proposals relate to internal restructures and we will be seeking assurances to ensure that our members are protected throughout this process. However, there are also proposals that will concern our members in a more general sense. These include:
- The closure and demolition of Europa Pools
- The temporary closure of Woodchurch Leisure Centre
- The temporary closure of Wirral Museums
- The scrapping of the schools crossing patrol service
- The review and potential closure of the 4 Council gold courses
We will be considering the launch of a number of public campaigns in relation to some of these issues in the new year, however, for our members in the Council we are holding two meetings tomorrow (Thursday 17 December) at 12pm (LINK ) and 5:30pm (LINK ) . If you are a council member please click on the appropriate link to attend the meeting on MS teams.
There are a number of other issues that we are continuing to press that are associated with the budget setting process, these include the continuation of the Real Living Wage for Care Workers, and the provision of a Homeworking Allowance for effected Council staff. We have also been clear with Wirral Council, that we are not prepared to accept any compulsory redundancies.
Wirral Unison AGM and Branch Officer & Stewards Nominations
This years AGM will take place on an aggregated basis across two dates, therefore you are invited to attend the AGM on either 23 February 2021 at 1pm or 3 March 2021 at 5:30pm. Due to the current pandemic both these meetings will be held virtually and further details will follow in due course. We are pleased to announce that our guest speaker at both meetings will be Paula Carlyle, a Unison NEC member from Merseyside.
The nomination period for Branch Officers, Stewards and Health and Safety reps is now open. The nomination papers are attached to this email.
The Branch Officer positions that you can be nominated for are:
Branch Secretary
Chair
Vice Chair
Treasurer
Deputy Branch Secretary
Health & Safety Officer
Communications
Training
Schools Officer
*Membership Services Officer
*Green Officer
*Young Members Officer
*Retired Members Officer
*International Relations Officer
*Labour Link Officer
*Lifelong Learning Coordinator
Equalities (currently shared)
Welfare
Women’s
*these positions are currently unoccupied
**the Labour Link Officer must pay into the affiliated political fund and be a member of the Labour Party. The Young Members Officer must be 27 or under and the Retired Members Officer must be retired.
If youwant more details on any of the roles please get in touch.
The deadline for nominations to be received is 14 January 2021.
UNISON Survey for Cleaners
Unison is hosting a survey that will help inform its response to a government consultation on low-paid members. Unison wants to hear from members that provide cleaning services – wherever you work and whether you are employed by an NHS trust, a local council, a school or a private contractor.
We want to know what training and development you get in your current role, to support the union’s response to a UK government consultation on low-paid workers. If you want a downloadable copy to get printable responses, please email private.contractors@unison.co.uk.
SURVEY: https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90300983/Cleaners-Survey
Christmas Prize Draw
The winners of Wirral Unison’s Christmas Prize Draw have been selected. This year we wanted to spread a little festive joy by choosing 10 members at random who have all won a prize of £50 each, 5 members were drawn from our low paid members. Congratulations to all the winners!!
Government consultation on reforming local government exit pay: model response
As you know, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is currently consulting on proposals to reform local government exit pay. The proposals include amending Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) regulations so they fall into line with the new cap of £95,000 on public sector exit payments. The consultation proposes that where a strain payment is made so the pension is unreduced for early payment, the member can only get the minimum statutory redundancy payment not any additional severance payment, even if the strain payment and additional severance payment would be under the £95,000 cap. It also proposes to offset the Statutory Redundancy Pay against the strain payment so even if the cap is not exceeded the strain payment would be reduced, so the pension would be less. This means even the low-paid with short service will be hit.
The consultation also includes other attacks on members’ exit payments, limiting discretionary severance payments for all members made redundant to a maximum of three weeks per year of service, with up to a maximum of 15 months’ pay. It also proposed to set a maximum salary that an exit payment can be based on.
Although the main consultation closed on 9 November, we have another chance to respond to the draft regulations, by 18 December. UNISON has been having national discussions with the MHCLG and we will also submit a formal response. Branches and members in England and Wales are encouraged to respond using the model response attached (amended if appropriate). The last consultation saw many UNISON branches respond and we know that the more responses received, the more the Government have to consider them.
Responses should be sent by email to: LGExitPay@communities.gov.uk.
Model Letter: http://msg.unison.org.uk/c/1kWFvzjflSqcLu4ShvovNEiSG
That’s all for today everyone, we hope you continue to find our regular email updates of use.
As always, please do pass our updates on to colleagues and encourage them to join Unison if they haven’t already. Here’s the link to join up! JOIN UNISON
We’ll be back in touch with further updates soon.
In solidarity!
Your Wirral Unison Team
Central email: unison1@wirral.gov.uk
Telephone: 07899713498 or 07899715085
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