‘I really didn’t believe it’, says UNISON prize draw winner
“I really didn’t believe it at first when I got the phone call, I was always one of those people who thought nobody really won these sorts of things but it’s finally sinking in and I am definitely glad I decided to answer that call!”
That was the reaction of UNISON member Abigail Hunt when she took the call to tell her that her name had been first out of the hat in the union’s prize draw.
“The money will be a massive help in my life and couldn’t have come at a better time. I am really looking forward to putting it to good use – some of it will go to making mine and my partner’s ‘dream for the futur...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - June 9, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News heart unison big prize draw Source Type: news
Health committee chair makes the right choice on EU vote, says UNISON
Responding to the defection of Sara Wollaston MP to the Remain camp over claims the NHS would benefit financially if the UK voted to leave Europe, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said:
“When the chair of the health select committee, a qualified GP and someone who knows the NHS inside out, decides she can no longer bear to be associated with the untruths about the health service being bandied about by the leave camp, everyone should take notice.
“Staying in Europe is the best way to protect the NHS and the services it delivers to patients. A remain vote on 23 June is a vote to support the NHS, our most cherished i...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - June 9, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Charlotte Jeffs Tags: News Press release EU eu referendum health and social care health care NHS Source Type: news
Belfast Trust to impose change from weekly to monthly pay on low-paid workers
At its June meeting, UNISON Northern Ireland’s health committee condemned the intervention by Belfast Trust employers to directly communicate with staff over the heads of the regional trade union negotiating team.
The Trust wants to impose a change from weekly to monthly pay on its low-paid workers.
The union believes this action amounts to a denial of the right to negotiate and is an imposition of a change without agreement of how and when you are paid.
It is calling on members to say “No” to this action and say “Yes” to a ballot for action and to demand employers listen to your staff union...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - June 9, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: HarrisonDi Tags: Article News health Northern Ireland one team one team for patient care Source Type: news
Calais Convoy – Practical, immediate steps to help those in need today
By now many of you will have seen the images of a boat tipped over with its hull in the air.
Designed for fishing it had been repurposed by smugglers to deliver an altogether different cargo. Hundreds of people fleeing war, violence and hunger, and seeking a better life somewhere else.
This week was not the first time we will such gruesome scenes, nor will it be the last. The world has faced many humanitarian crises in recent decades – many of which happen far from our shores, and all too many of which are forgotten or ignored by media and politicians (although, it must be said, not by our movement). Yet this time a refu...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - May 27, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Dave Prentis Tags: General secretary's blog News convoy to calais refugees Source Type: news
Pride in our union and the One Team that runs our NHS
Pride in and love of our NHS and our union was the theme echoing through UNISON’s health conference in Brighton today.
Service group chair Roz Norman opened by telling delegates: “If there’s one word I want you to emphasise it’s pride: pride in our NHS, pride in our union.”
And general secretary Dave Prentis continued: “I owe a personal debt of gratitude to the NHS. Like many of you, it saved my life.”
But he asked: “What keeps us fighting? What binds us together? Our belief in our union and in our national health service.”
The union had many reasons to be proud, he continued, reminding delegates that on...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - April 25, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: HarrisonDi Tags: Article News health health care health care conference 2016 NHS NHS bursary one team one team for patient care save the NHS bursary Source Type: news
Are you ready for NMC revalidation?
How nurses, midwives and health visitors renew their registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has changed.
A new revalidation system which came into force at the beginning of this month means that all nurses and midwives across the UK will have to demonstrate competence if they want to remain on the professional register and be able to practice.
To do this, they will need to demonstrate that they are complying with their professional code of conduct and have completed at least 450 hours of practice over the previous three years, along with 35 hours of continuous professional development.
UNISON has produc...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - April 11, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tony Braisby Tags: Article News health care health visitors Midwives NMC nurses nursing nursing and midwifery council revalidation Source Type: news
Disability cuts – a warped sense of priorities
Yesterday’s budget was another brutal blow to for disabled people. And for those disabled people who are also public sector workers – including many UNISON members – it was a blow at least twice over.
The government’s decision to slash Personal Independence Payments (PIP) whilst giving a tax cut to those earning comfortably more than the average UK salary shows a warped sense of priorities. Those who will lose out will suffer a great deal, struggling to lead independent lives without the support that PIP provides. Be in no doubt that disabled people have been hit – wilfully and painfully – by this budget. Hundr...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - March 17, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Dave Prentis Tags: General secretary's blog News Budget 2016 disabled disabled members Source Type: news
Giving police volunteers rights to use weapons is a step too far, says UNISON
Controversial new proposals to arm volunteer police community support officers (PCSOs) with CS gas and PAVA spray – due to be discussed later today (Monday) in Parliament – are a step too far, says UNISON.
The Policing and Crime Bill, which has its Second Reading today, proposes arming volunteers with chemical agents. UNISON says this radical new step is yet another example of ministers trying to achieve policing on the cheap.
UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: “We all want to feel safe in these troubled times, but allowing police volunteers to use CS gas and PAVA spray when they will only have had limited t...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - March 7, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Charlotte Jeffs Tags: News Press release PCSOs police and justice Police and justice staff police staff Policing and Crime Bill Source Type: news
Hospitals need 15,000 more nurses as government cuts student bursaries, says UNISON
Responding to a report today (Tuesday) from NHS Improvement on the rising demand for nurses in the NHS, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: “Reports that the NHS needs another 15,000 nurses come hard on the heels of ministers cutting student bursaries.
“Government claims that this will attract more students to the profession are totally unfounded, and will not help fill current vacancies.
“The bill for using expensive agency nurses has gone up 30 per cent since 2012. The long-term plan must be to train and properly fund the nurses of the future.
“Urgent action is needed from ministers to ease NHS funding pr...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - February 16, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Charlotte Jeffs Tags: News Press release bursaries health care NHS nursing shortages student nurses Source Type: news
Well-run charities don’t treat their staff with contempt
A charity’s primary aim should be to carry out its charitable objectives. But a well run charity – the kind we’d all want to be part of and to support – is one that takes care of its staff too.
Well-run charities don’t treat their staff with contempt by imposing miniscule pay rises on them without negotiation, and yet that’s exactly what Action for Children has done recently. As a result, staff at the charity have voted to take industrial action.
That decision will have been a very difficult one for the employees who are committed to their jobs and the people they care for. It demonstrates the strength of fee...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - February 16, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Dave Prentis Tags: General secretary's blog News Action for Children charity strike Source Type: news
Gwynedd council to pay school assistant fees
Gwynedd council has become the seventh Welsh authority to commit to paying the registration fees for its learning support workers after concerted lobbying by UNISON Cymru Wales.
Learning support workers or teaching assistants do all those vital but unheralded jobs in our schools, supporting special educational needs children and underperforming children and helping teachers cope with large classes.
From April 2016, all learning support workers in Wales will be required to be registered with the Education Workforce Council (EWC). The registration fee is an annual payment of £15 per person.
As the union for school support ...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - February 10, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: tonyb Tags: Article cymru/wales education services local government professional registration schools Source Type: news
Together we can defeat the scourge of racism says UNISON
Speaking at the UNISON black members conference in North Wales, UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: “The first responsibility of any union wanting to challenge racism must be to take it on in the workplace. Then we have to challenge it in our economy.
“In these tough times it’s more important than ever not to let racism fall off the agenda, particularly the insidious, silent racism in our workplaces.
“The racism that first tells black workers that they aren’t qualified enough, or too qualified, and all too visible when it comes to disciplinaries and grievances.
“Trade union activists fought long and ha...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - January 22, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Charlotte Jeffs Tags: Press release black members conference 2016 Source Type: news
We’ll continue to fight racism and attacks on our union – because they’re part of the same struggle
These are tough times for trade unionists. But in these tough times it’s more important than ever not to let racism fall off the agenda.
Working together as a union to support our members, our friends and those around the world who suffer the effects of racism each day.
The struggle for race equality is like many of the great struggles working people have faced, where every right they’ve gained and each fight they’ve won seemed impossible at first. Where it seemed every positive change in legislation was so often proceeded by tragedy and great struggle.
That was the case when we fought to make it illegal to discrimin...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - January 22, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: Dave Prentis Tags: General secretary's blog News black members black members conference 2016 dave prentis Source Type: news
Closure of Four Seasons home
UNISON, the largest trade union within the Four Seasons Group has been notified that the sale of the Garvagh Care Home has fallen through and the home will close in May 2016.
Regional organiser Brian Ferguson stated: “This news is even more traumatic, given that there was a potential buyer and residents believed their home was secure.”
UNISON has met with staff who are devastated with the prospect of redundancy as there is no likely redeployment.
UNISON is currently in negotiations with the company and will enter into negotiations with the Northern Health Trust and the Health and Social Care Board in an attempt...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - January 22, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: tonyb Tags: Article care homes Four Seasons health and social care health care NI Northern Ireland save care now Source Type: news
UNISON to lobby Welsh peers on Trade Union Bill
UNISON Cymru Wales officials will travel to London on Monday to meet Welsh peers in the Houses of Parliament and secure their support against the UK Conservative government’s Trade Union Bill.
Working closely with Labour peer Baroness Eluned Morgan, UNISON Cymru Wales has written to Labour, Liberal Democrat, cross-bench and Conservative peers, convening a meeting to explain the seriousness of the threats the Bill poses and why it is essential that lords vote to oppose the legislation.
“The Trade Union Bill is a regressive step that will harm good industrial relations and the key health and local government employer...
Source: UNISON Health and safety news - January 22, 2016 Category: Occupational Health Authors: tonyb Tags: Article News cymru/wales health care heart unions Heart UNISON heart unison week House of Lords local government parliament trade union bill 2015 trade union rights Source Type: news
