Wirral UNISON Branch Update 24.05.2021

Hi

Welcome to the start of another week; we hope you had a good weekend. We have just a few updates for you today.

UNISON Leadership – LAST DAY TO POST YOUR VOTE

The ballot for Unison NEC elections closes 27 May, so today is the last day to pop your vote in the post box (or tomorrow if you stick a first class stamp on it)

Wirral UNISON has nominated the following people because we believe they are committed to ensuring our union challenges Government nationally and won’t leave members and branches to fight alone. We believe they will fight to: 

• Break the Tory Pay Freeze while their pals get rich on dodgy Government COVID contracts
• Oppose further Austerity and cuts to services
• Resist attacks on our pensions and terms and conditions
• Defend our NHS from privatisation and closures of hospitals and services
• Fight sexism, racism and all forms of discrimination 

No to Forced Vaccinations

Care staff are nearly twice as likely to turn down a Covid jab if they’ve been threatened or not given vaccination advice by their employer, according to a survey Unison has commissioned.

The findings, based on responses from over 4,000 workers across the UK, including those in care homes and in the community show that forcing care employees to get the jab is likely to backfire. Unison recognises that widespread take-up of the Covid vaccine across the care workforce is essential, but government plans for mandatory vaccinations would be counterproductive and could trigger employee shortages in a sector already in crisis. We have presented our concerns to a Department for Health and Social Care consultation on proposals to make the jab compulsory for workers in care homes for the elderly in England.

The majority (88%) of care workers taking part in UNISON’s survey had received a jab, compared with just over one in ten (12%) who had not. The most common response from non-vaccinated staff was they had simply turned down the offer (65%). This was followed by other reasons (24%) such as pregnancy, the desire to do more research or because they were still waiting for an appointment.

Whilst  more than two thirds (68%) said their employer had provided support and advice about the Covid vaccine, nearly a third had received no helpful advice from their employer (33%), and 18% of these staff saying employers had imposed a deadline for them to get the jab. A further 9% said their boss threatened to sack them if they turned down the offer of a vaccination, and (3%) were told their pay would be cut. Others (60%) talked of bullying, emotional blackmail, or threats of no more shifts. Those staff who had faced the worst treatment from their employers were far more likely not to have been vaccinated. One in five care workers (21%) who had faced threats and had also not been given any support said they had not been vaccinated, compared with the 12% of staff overall who said they did not get a jab. 

UNISON believes encouragement, education and flexibility is key to the vaccine roll out. The government rather than seeking compulsory vaccination should take measures to boost take-up such as a major advertising drive, asking vaccinated staff to reassure hesitant colleagues, and targeting resources at areas where uptake is low.

Council and Schools Pay Offer

The Local Government Association  has made a pay offer of 1.5% to council and school support staff last week, which has been resoundingly rejected by UNISON. Our pay negotiating committee including representatives of council and school workers from across England, Wales and Northern Ireland  met on Friday and dismissed the offer as ‘insulting’. The committee said the amount offered by the employers fell well short of the 10% joint claim submitted by the unions earlier in the year. The council and school workers felt the offer was derisory and showed a complete disregard for all staff had done during the pandemic to keep essential services running and communities safe.

Given the Government has already suggested a public sector pay freeze to pay for the pandemic this initial offer should come as no surprise. But why should we bear the cost of the crisis (after 10 years of pay freezes to pay for the bankers crisis), when money has been doled out to government friends (£32bn to Serco). Yesterday the annual list of the Richest 1,000 people in Britain was published. In the past 12 months the wealth of Britain’s Billionaires has increased over the last dreadful 12 months by an incredible 22%! A 10% tax on their wealth above £1billion would yield £38 billion – more than enough to give a decent pay rise to all public sector workers.

Can our Pay Claim be afforded – YES! We will be holding a special all members meeting on pay in the coming weeks.

Wirral Evolutions.

Wirral Evolutions, the wholly Council owned company providing Day Services for those with disabilities, have commenced a consultation with users of the service and their parents and carers, over proposed changes. This comes after the Council in their last budget forced through a 10% cut in the expenditure of the service.

The proposals include the closure of two day centres, and one Best Bites facility, it also include a significant staffing restructure that will affect pay, hours worked, locations and tasks undertaken of many members. The stated aim is to produce a modernised, person centred, community facing service; aims we would share. However given the cuts that are proposed, including in the amount of care hours available, we have concerns about how deliverable that will be in practice, it may lead to worse outcomes for all.

We are concerned about the impact upon those who use the service, as our members are, but also the impact upon our members, many facing significant pay cuts – front line care workers! In a survey nearly 90% of our members wanted to see the organisation brought back into the Council. We will be seeking to liaise further as the consultation progresses.


Finally just a reminder to complete our survey on sexual harassment in the workplace: https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90332397/Sexual-Harassment

As always, please do share our updates with your colleagues and encourage them to JOIN UNISON if they haven’t already.

We’ll be back in touch soon with further updates.

In solidarity!

Your Wirral Unison Team
Central email: unison1@wirral.gov.uk
Telephone: 0151 666 3040