Working over Christmas? This is for you
Members of the public have given their messages of thanks to public sector workers who keep essential services running over the Christmas holidays.
“Thank you for forsaking your Christmas for others, it’s a noble cause”. That’s what one member of the public said when UNISON asked them if they wanted to give a message to those working at Christmas.
At UNISON we know that lots of people work on Christmas day. From hospital cleaners, porters, catering staff, nurses, and receptionists to 999 call handlers, homecare workers and many, many more.
The people asked to contribute to the film were overwhelmingly gratefu...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - December 15, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Rosa Ellis Tags: Article christmas public service champions Source Type: news
West Sussex schools are running out of money – it ’ s time to fund our schools properly and fairly
You might not know it, but some of our schools are running out of money.
Take West Sussex for example. When it comes to education, West Sussex is the lowest funded county in the country, and it’s currently facing a financial cliff edge. Schools in West Sussex say they need an additional £20 million from April next year, or they’ll face dramatic cutbacks. That will mean staff won’t be replaced when they leave (and will be under further pressure if they stay), disruptive restructures (which too often lead to cuts in staff or downgrading) will be inevitable, learning support for kids who need it most will be lost, clas...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - December 9, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Dave Prentis Tags: General secretary's blog News school school funding Source Type: news
Teaching assistants urge public to support their dispute with Derby council
Derby teaching assistants – striking today (Thursday) for the eighth time since the city council cut their pay in June – are taking their campaign into the community to get the public to lobby councillors on their behalf.
The classroom assistants have been in dispute with their employer since last September when the council announced plans to put them onto term-time contracts. The move means some employees will lose as much as £6,000 a year.
The mostly female workforce will be out leafleting today (Thursday) on the streets of Boulton ward in Alvaston where council leader Ranjit Banwait has his seat. UNISON general sec...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - October 6, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Charlotte Jeffs Tags: News Press release dave prentis teaching assistants Source Type: news
Finding a way through Brexit
When parliament reconvenes on 7 September, Brexit will be at the top of its agenda. Summer holidays over, it will be time to prepare for the end of an era.
It is expected that the two-year process of withdrawal from the EU will be painstakingly negotiated between the UK government and Brussels, from 2017 at the earliest.
And UNISON believes it is critical that it plays a part in those negotiations.
The trade unions share numerous concerns relating to the Brexit talks, including the need to protect public services, workers’ employment rights and trade union rights.
The risk that higher EU protections and standards may be ...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - September 5, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Demetrios Matheou Tags: Magazine anti-racism BREXIT cuts employment rights eu referendum Northern Ireland procurement Save Our Local Services Scotland trade union rights working internationally Source Type: news
Unhealthy development: How DfID promote health privatisation
The recent exposure of the scale of the government’s toxic healthcare privatisation plans has reignited the debate on in whose interest should the NHS be run – patients or shareholders.
NHS deficits, caused in part by extortionate Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes, are providing the government with the perfect cover to hand over the most profitable services to private companies. This ideological agenda to commercialise the NHS completely ignores decades of evidence and the expertise of the healthcare profession, driven instead by the interests of private healthcare companies, lobbyists and investors.
Unfortunate...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - September 2, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Dave Prentis Tags: General secretary's blog News DfID health privatisation Source Type: news
Colombia still needs human rights monitoring despite peace deal
UNISON’s has welcomed the peace agreement in Colombia as “a major achievement that could lead to real, lasting progress for ordinary Colombians”.
But the union’s hed of international affairs Nick Crook also urged the international community to put in place “effective human rights monitoring” in what remains a sensitive time in the South American country.
The Colombian government and the Farc rebel group signed their “final, full and definitive” peace accord in Havana on Wednesday, after four years of talks. It ends a 52-year conflict that has killed an estimated 220,000 people and displaced millions.
Un...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - August 26, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Demetrios Matheou Tags: News colombia international working internationally Source Type: news
A positive frame of mind
UNISON member Darren Buckland is an assistant practitioner with the Community Neurology Service in Nottingham, an integrated NHS and local authority team helping people with neurological conditions.
He works primarily with people suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. As part of his job he’s been taking part in a project that has started to use mindfulness, a meditative technique, in working with patients – not just with Parkinson’s, but multiple sclerosis, Huntingdon’s disease and epilepsy.
Darren and his colleagues spend time with patients, helping them to look at their negative thought processes, as well as t...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - August 12, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Demetrios Matheou Tags: Magazine NHS u magazine Source Type: news
Chilcot report: UNISON statement
With the publication of the Chilcot inquiry report on Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war, UNISON has commented with a joint statement by general secretary Dave Prentis and president Eric Roberts.
It reads:
“After seven long years, the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq has published its report.
“UNISON opposed the invasion, believing that it was both based on the false premise of Iraq holding weapons of mass destruction and was illegal without a vote in the UN Security Council.
“After the invasion, it soon became apparent that neither the UK nor US governments had a post-invasion strategy; leading to...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - July 6, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tony Braisby Tags: Article News chilcot general secretary international iraq president working internationally Source Type: news
The families of British soldiers and Iraqi civilians deserve nothing less than justice
Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary:
Today the Chilcot report is released after years of waiting. Below is a statement that I have released along with UNISON president Eric Roberts:
“After seven long years, the Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq has published its report.
UNISON opposed the invasion, believing that it was both based on the false premise of Iraq holding weapons of mass destruction and was illegal without a vote in the UN Security Council.
After the invasion, it soon became apparent that neither the UK nor US governments had a post-invasion strategy; leading to years of instability, civil war ...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - July 6, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Dave Prentis Tags: General secretary's blog News chilcot iraq Source Type: news
UNISON sends solidarity to striking NUT members in England
UNISON has sent a message of support to NUT members in English schools who are taking strike action today.
The union has also urged UNISON members to support legal protests and rallies organised by the NUT.
“Striking is never an easy option, but the NUT has felt forced to act to protect their pay and working conditions,” said UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis.
“Their strike demands – to increase funding to schools and education, guarantee terms and conditions and to resume negotiations on teacher contracts – are just.”
Recent government proposals include increasing the number of schools forced to become aca...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - July 5, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tony Braisby Tags: Article News education services local government schools Source Type: news
Corbyn vows to scrap Trade Union Act when in government
Jeremy Corbyn told UNISON delegates today that a Labour government would immediately repeal the Trade Union Act.
“We would go further,” the Labour leader said. “We would strengthen trade union and employment rights. We would be a government that says that trade unions are a force for good and a force for equality in our society.”
Mr Corbyn was speaking at the National Delegate Conference in Brighton this morning, where was greeted with a standing ovation as he entered the conference hall alongside UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis – and at the conclusion of a speech in which he stressed his trade union creden...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - June 22, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Demetrios Matheou Tags: News equal pay eu referendum fighting cuts and privatisation in the NHS labour link living wage Living Wage Foundation NDC NDC16 stop TTIP Source Type: news
Local government staff at breaking point and cutbacks to blame, says UNISON
Local government workers are experiencing unprecedented pressure and stress in the workplace – and government cuts are to blame, says a report from UNISON published today (Wednesday).
The report – Under Pressure, Underfunded and Undervalued – is based on a survey of more than 2,000 local council staff, including teaching assistants, social workers, librarians and carers who look after people in their own homes.
The findings highlight how staff morale and working conditions have suffered as a result of government costcutting, with more than half a million jobs in local government axed since 2010.
Three...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - June 22, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Charlotte Jeffs Tags: News Press release heather wakefield local government Source Type: news
Delegates call for action on NJC pay spines
Pay, and particularly the government’s insistence on a 1% pay cap, has a massive impact on members working in all the sectors represented by the service group, UNISON’s local government conference in Brighton heard this afternoon.
InHead of local government Heather Wakefield called the pay cap “a poisonous Tory cocktail, eating away at your living standards”, butnoted that there was something good to report – the success in Scotland of winning more than 1% there.
“Whatever we do,” said Ms Wakefield, “we must do so in unity”.
Speaking on behalf of the national joint council committee, covering co...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - June 19, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article lg16 local government local government conference 2016 local government cuts local government pay 2016 local government pay – the National Joint Council (NJC) Source Type: news
UNISON pledges campaign for an end to school workers’ term-time contracts
UNISON is to campaign for school workers across the UK to be employed during every week of the year, local government delegates in Brighton declared this afternoon.
Delegate after delegate pointed out that the vast majority of school workers employed on so-called term-time contracts are women, effectively paid for just 10 months of the year.
But as Nuala Conlon of Northern Ireland reminded delegates: “We all live 12 months of the year, and people want to live – not just exist.”
And national secretary Jon Richards pointed to disputes involving teaching assistants in Derby and Durham, “where staff face huge p...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - June 19, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tony Braisby Tags: Article education education services local government local government conference 2016 schools term-time contracts Source Type: news
EU referendum: registration to vote deadline extended
The deadline to register to vote in the referendum has been extended after thousands of people were reportedly prevented from registering before the original deadline, when the government website crashed yesterday.
The government has now published emergency legislation to allow people to register until 23:59 BST today, Thursday 9 June.
UNISON is urging its members to vote to remain in the EU.
It takes just 5 mins to register online here.
Find out why UNISON believes its members should vote to remain in the EU.
The article EU referendum: registration to vote deadline extended first appeared on the UNISON site. (Source: UNIS...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - June 9, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: HarrisonDi Tags: Article News eu referendum register to vote Source Type: news
