Government ’s failure to implement Windrush decisions is unlawful
The government’s decision to scrap recommendations made by an independent review into the Windrush scandal was unlawful, says UNISON today (Tuesday).
Over the next two days at the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, the union will be putting forward legal arguments to support the case brought by Windrush scandal victim Trevor Donald.
Mr Donald is challenging the decision taken in early 2023 by the then home secretary Suella Braverman to scrap three of the recommendations hailing from the Windrush Learned Lessons Review.
When Wendy Williams first published her independent review into the government’s treatment of the...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 23, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release judicial review Windrush Source Type: news
Government should be ashamed of trading lives for votes over Rwanda
Commenting on the Rwanda bill clearing its final parliamentary hurdle, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said today (Tuesday):
“Nothing more clearly demonstrates the cruelty and moral bankruptcy of this government than the ghastly Rwanda law it has finally pushed through parliament.
“For ministers to be gleeful at the export of vulnerable people, including children and victims of modern slavery, is a disgrace.
“The UK is trading away its humanitarian duties and turning its back on people in genuine need, who get no second chance.
“There’s no proof that any of this will stop the boats as the Prime Minister...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 23, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release immigration refugees Rwanda Source Type: news
UNISON opinion: Who wins? You decide
Ballot papers for the service group executive (SGE) elections should have arrived in your email inboxes. You’ll also receive a postal ballot paper to your home address very soon.
Now is the time to use your vote and choose who represents you on your service group executive committee.
The SGEs are made up of UNISON members who decide what campaigns to run on your pay, terms, conditions, and funding for public services. They can also take decisions on pay consultations, strike ballots, days of action and are responsible for protecting your interests at work. It’s not paid staff at UNISON headquarters who make these decis...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 23, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Christina McAnea Tags: Article General Secretary's blog News Christina McAnea SGE elections 2024 Source Type: news
Prime Minister should focus on the NHS, not demonise those too sick to work
Commenting on the Prime Minister’s proposals on welfare reform today (Friday), UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:
“The Prime Minister has promised and failed to cut NHS waiting lists.
“Worse still, his government has damaged the public services people were once able to rely upon to get better and stay healthy.
“Lengthy waits for NHS operations and treatment have left people languishing at home, too sick or injured to work. That’s a personal tragedy for them and terrible for the economy too.
“Instead of hostile rhetoric on benefits, ministers should be recruiting to fill the huge...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 19, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Fatima Ayad Tags: News Press release Christina McAnea NHS Source Type: news
NEC hears of another Supreme Court win for UNISON
UNISON’s national executive council, meeting yesterday, heard that the union had just won the case of Fiona Mercer in the Supreme Court. General secretary Christina McAnea said that it means that, “today, the court has agreed that the (UK) law is incompatible with international law, because it does not protect workers from ongoing victimisation by employers if they have taken legal industrial action”.
The case had been won in the employment appeal tribunal, but the then business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng intervened and took the case to the Court of Appeal, which subsequently decided to reverse that decision in March 2...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 18, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News Christina McAnea Gaza general secretary MAP NEC Palestine UN Source Type: news
Delegates support calls on wellbeing and health and safety
Delegates to UNISON’s health conference debated a series of motions under the collective heading of health, safety and wellbeing, on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.
“Let’s commit to fostering a workplace where every woman feels valued,” said Susan Parkinson (pictured above).
Moving a motion on women’s mental health at work for the national women’s committee, she explained that women experience higher levels of mental health problems than men.
Karen Buckley from Greater Manchester stated that 76% of the NHS staff are women. Alongside the fact that the majority of carers – paid and unpaid – are also women, and...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 10, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News 2024 National Health Conference health and safey long covid mental health sexual harassment trans rights Source Type: news
Health conference: Divided we fall
The debate on Agenda for Change pay merged into terms and conditions as business continued into the afternoon at health conference in Brighton.
Paying to work
First up were a group of motions that explored the various ways in which health workers are losing out financially in the course of their work. This included paying for their own uniforms, DBS checks, paying for hospital parking – with one delegate even saying her employer asked for staff to pay for their key-fobs.
Elsewhere motions discussed out-of-date mileage and subsistence rates with the mover of the mileage motion, Trudy Martin of the SGE, noting that: “HMR...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 9, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Simon Jackson Tags: Article News 2024 National Health Conference agenda for change Source Type: news
Health workers deserve better than this government
Speaking to delegates gathered at UNISON’s annual health conference in Brighton today (Tuesday), UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:
“The government’s promised but not delivered on the NHS. Its legacy will be crumbling hospital estates, outdated equipment, appalling waiting lists and NHS staff at their wits’ ends.
“Investment’s been drained for 14 years, capacity’s tumbling and workforce stress is ratcheting up.
“It’s no small wonder three in ten NHS workers had to take time off for mental health issues in the past year.
“The pressures on healthcare staff are immense. They’re caring for ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 9, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release 2024 National Health Conference NHS staff Source Type: news
Opinion: Every day, UNISON is fighting for our NHS
I’ve just delivered my speech to UNISON’s health members at their annual gathering in Brighton. I spoke about the immense pressures on NHS staff – caring for more patients, with fewer staff, in less time. But I also spoke about the support UNISON gives them to find their voice and help drive through the campaigns that matter most to them.
It’s always important for me to remind our members that UNISON is standing by them, backing them up and fighting their corner. That’s needed more than ever right now, because health workers are having to take time off for mental health issues and many are walking out completely ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 9, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Christina McAnea Tags: Article General Secretary's blog News 2024 National Health Conference Source Type: news
Christina McAnea leads applause for successful UNISON strikers
There’s power in the union – particularly if that union is UNISON. That was the message at the heart of a speech this morning from general secretary Christina McAnea to UNISON’s national health service group conference in Brighton.
“Look at all you’ve achieved in the past 12 months”, she told delegates.
“Forty-two re-banding deals done across England and Scotland in our Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign. £70 million in back pay – and rising.
“A huge strike in Northern Ireland that forced politicians back into the Northern Ireland Assembly to sort out public sector pay – that’s the power of UNISON....
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 9, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News 2024 National Health Conference General election 2024 Industrial action national care service NHS strikes Source Type: news
Conference stands with Palestinian health workers
Health conference reopened in Brighton yesterday afternoon with a speech from campaigns and advocacy advisor for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), Richard Pyle (pictured, below).
Detailing the harrowing situation on the ground in Gaza, he opened saying: “2024 marks 40 years since the founding of MAP – we had hoped to celebrate the organisation’s achievements.”
Instead, the organisation is responding to one of the gravest situations Palestinians have ever faced.
He told delegates that over 33,000 Palestinians had died in the conflict with over 75,000 injured, asking: “What do we say when the number of childr...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 9, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Simon Jackson Tags: Article News 2024 National Health Conference Palestine Source Type: news
A new deal for health staff
Tuesday afternoon at health conference saw a group of motions on professional and occupational issues.
Top on the agenda was a motion calling for ‘A new deal for healthcare assistants’. It called on the health SGE to continue to build on the work of the highly successful Pay Fair for Patient Care campaign.
The campaign focusses on winning significant sums of pack pay for members by fighting for rebanding for healthcare assistants (HCAs) at a local level.
The motion, moved by Annette Heslop, calls for continued campaigning for proper career progression opportunities, better recognition and lobbying for a strategy to pro...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 8, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Simon Jackson Tags: Article News 2024 National Health Conference one team paramedics Source Type: news
Health workers in South West celebrate double lump-sum victory
Hundreds of hospital workers in the South West are celebrating victory after NHS and Sodexo respectively committed to paying the lump sum bonuses due to them.
The one-off payment, part of a deal agreed for all staff on NHS contracts and Agenda for Change, is worth at least £1,655 for full-time health workers.
Wiltshire
Staff at Wiltshire’s six community hospitals had taken two days of strike action (pictured above) over the company’s previous refusal to honour the payment, already given to health workers employed directly by the NHS in June 2022.
Wiltshire Health and Care initially said it could not afford to pay the...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 8, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article health workers one team for patient care South West Source Type: news
Barriers for disabled staff in the health service need to be lowered
Annette Heslop (pictured above) for the nursing and midwifery occupational group moved a motion on ensuring reasonable adjustments for healthcare students on clinical placements.
Equality law gives disabled workers the right to reasonable adjustments where they experience substantial disadvantage. However, as students are not classed as employees, some struggle on clinical placements to access reasonable adjustments.
Ms Heslop said that, in such a situation, it was no surprise that students dropped out. “We must ensure that all students are supported on their placements,” she concluded.
In a related motion, the nationa...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 8, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article 2024 National Health Conference disabled members reasonable adjustments Source Type: news
UNISON will continue to strengthen the Race for Equality campaign
In a motion on equipping branches to tackle race discrimination in the NHS, the health service group executive stressed that UNISON is continuing to strengthen its Race for Equality campaign that was a centrepiece to the union’s Year of Black Workers in 2023.
Maria Alberts for the service group executive told delegates: “Racism does exist in the NHS”.
She cited Too Hot to Handle, a report that “shines a light” on the lack of safe and effective means to report and then tackle problems, with, for instance, 63% of Black workers surveyed saying that they were subjected to greater scrutiny than white colleagues.
Deleg...
Source: UNISON Health care news - April 8, 2024 Category: UK Health Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News 2024 National Health Conference black members race for equality UNISON Year of Black Workers Source Type: news
