NHS staff at Merseyside hospitals vote to strike after years of being underpaid
More than 400 health staff at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) have voted for strike action over pay, says UNISON today (Friday).
An overwhelming majority (99%) of clinical support workers voted to strike in a recent UNISON ballot. Industrial action is now imminent unless the trust makes an improved offer to staff, says the union.
Clinical support workers (CSWs) deliver essential care alongside nursing staff on the wards. They’re employed across the trust’s sites at Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge hospitals on the Wirral.
UNISON says these employees should be paid at least £...
Source: UNISON Health care news - August 11, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release clinical support workers nhs strikes rebanding Source Type: news
Get set for Green UNISON week
As we head towards Green UNISON week, which runs from 15-22 September this year, it’s the ideal time to start planning.
Green UNISON week is a chance to raise awareness of green issues nationally and locally, plan activities to encourage and enable members to get more active and to celebrate all the things they are already doing in support of the green agenda – not just in work but anywhere.
There are many things that you could do to mark the week – here are just a few ideas.
Hold a UNISON green event
You could run a lunchtime stall in the canteen, show a film or arrange a talk. Why not invite a speaker from a nearby...
Source: UNISON Health care news - August 10, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Amanda Kendal Tags: Article News green network Green rep Green UNISON Week Source Type: news
Workers speak out about mileage rates
Last month, The RAC Foundation, a transport policy and research organisation, announced that frontline workers who use their car for work are out of pocket by an average of £6,000 a year due to out-of-date mileage rates.
Since then, the union has heard from numerous members about their experiences.
Roger Lewis said: “It’s an outrageous scandal that the higher the mileage workers have to travel in their cars, the more out of pocket we are. It’s a financial disincentive or penalty for doing our work. We should be paid properly.”
Community care worker Debbie Pink said: “We have not had an increase in our mileag...
Source: UNISON Health care news - August 8, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article News cost of living mileage mileage rates Source Type: news
Autumn term strikes set to go ahead at 13 universities
The results are in for the higher education strike ballot that ran from 31 May to 31 July – and 13 higher education institutions have met the threshold for action.
The current offer from the University and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA), a 5-8% pay rise depending on salary spinal point, equates to a real-terms pay cut given inflation was over 10% this year.
Although some money was backdated to earlier this year, it’s still not enough for staff to live on with the ongoing cost of living crisis.
HE members have suffered a real-terms pay cut of around 25% over the last 14 years, due to year on year uplifts that ...
Source: UNISON Health care news - August 4, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article News higher education Source Type: news
New funding brings temporary relief to care but much more is needed, says UNISON
Responding to the government’s announcement of a £600m package for social care, UNISON assistant general secretary Jon Richards said: “A cash injection might offer temporary relief to the woefully underfunded and broken care sector, but it does nothing to address its huge problems.
“Without a long-term plan to solve care’s staffing crisis, the sector will remain many thousands of employees short.
“The government must work with councils, unions and care employers to establish the national standards and funding arrangements that are desperately needed.
“Only a national care servi...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 28, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Fatima Ayad Tags: News Press release Jon Richards social care Source Type: news
Blog: Influencing the next Labour government
After 13 years of Tory failures in Westminster, our economy is weaker, our living standards are lower, and our country is poorer. Britain is clearly broken.
Over the weekend, our UNISON delegation spent long hours in intense negotiations with the Labour party at the National Policy Forum.
Our mission was to get UNISON’s priorities on pay, public services, social care, workers’ and trade union rights, and equalities into Labour’s policy platform for their next manifesto.
That manifesto must be election-winning, because despite Labour riding high in the polls over the past year, they’ve lost the last four general ele...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 26, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Christina McAnea Tags: Article General Secretary General Secretary's blog News Christina McAnea Labour Party UNISON Labour Link Source Type: news
Government must raise ‘ out-of-date ’ mileage rates for struggling public service staff, says UNISON
More than a million public service workers including care staff, district nurses, housing officers, police staff and probation officers are being left thousands of pounds out of pocket because ministers have failed to update national mileage rates, says a UNISON report published today (Friday).
NHS, social care, police and local government employees who need to drive for work are up to £6,000 a year worse off because the current 45p rate, set by HM Revenue and Customs, has not changed in over a decade, according to research by the union and the RAC Foundation.
The report Driven Out of Work says the allowa...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 13, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Fatima Ayad Tags: Article Press release Christina McAnea mileage rates Source Type: news
High Court rules ‘ strike-breaking ’ agency worker regulations unlawful
UNISON has defeated the government in the High Court over strike-breaking legislation that was introduced last summer.
The High Court has ruled that the legislation, which allows employers to use agency workers to replace those on strike, was unlawful, unfair and irrational.
The case marks another success for UNISON and its members in challenging laws restricting workers’ rights.
The judgment follows successful judicial review proceedings lodged by UNISON alongside the NASUWT and TUC, whose case is on behalf of 11 unions. Together, the unions represent millions of workers in the UK.
Since 1976, it has been illegal for em...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 13, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article News Industrial action Legal Source Type: news
High Court finds strike-breaking legislation unlawful following UNISON case
Employers can no longer use agency staff to fill in for striking workers during industrial action after the High Court ruled that government legislation introduced last year is unlawful, says UNISON today (Thursday).
The important judgment handed down this morning follows successful judicial review proceedings lodged by UNISON and other TUC unions last autumn.
For more than 40 years, it was illegal in the UK to supply agency workers for employers to use to cover the jobs of staff on strike, says UNISON.
But in the early summer of 2022, the then Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng decided that was going to change. Against t...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 13, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Janey Starling Tags: Article Press release Source Type: news
Better pay is the solution to England ’ s care recruitment crisis, says UNISON
Commenting on the small decrease in the number of vacancies in social care in England, reported by Skills for Care today (Wednesday), UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said:
“The need for a new national care service grows more pressing with each passing day.
“Until care jobs pay decent wages and offer worthwhile careers, the sector is always going to struggle to attract and keep enough staff to meet growing demand and take the pressure off the NHS.
“Vacancy rates are down slightly because care firms have been on a recruitment drive overseas. But migrant workers are now propping up the broken care...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 11, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Fatima Ayad Tags: News Press release adult social care Christina McAnea Source Type: news
Migrant care staff in UK ‘exploited and harassed’ by employers, says UNISON
Migrant staff coming to the UK to take up jobs in social care are being forced to pay back thousands of pounds in fees, housed in sub-standard accommodation and even forced to share beds with colleagues, says UNISON today (Monday).
To highlight this appalling treatment, the union has written to care minister Helen Whately warning of a ‘significant rise’ in reports of unacceptable treatment by unscrupulous employers towards workers from overseas.
In the letter, UNISON says the exploitation and ‘shocking abuse’ faced by skilled migrant workers – 58,000 of whom came to the UK to work in the care...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 10, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Fatima Ayad Tags: News Press release Christina McAnea social care Source Type: news
UNISON demands Thames Water answers
UNISON’s general secretary Christina McAnea has written to two major figures in the regulation of the water industry about the reported financial mismanagement of Thames Water.
The company, which supplies water to a quarter of the country’s population, has been making headlines over recent weeks after coming under intense scrutiny over its performance and about its financial performance, including reports that it is currently £14bn in debt and on the verge of financial collapse.
Writing to the head of Ofwat David Black, the union’s general secretary asked for clarity about how the situation with Thames Water was al...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 7, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Simon Jackson Tags: Article News water industry water ownership WET Source Type: news
Government should commit to NHS pay talks now to avoid possible strikes next year
The government must commit to holding direct pay talks with unions and employers for the wage increase health workers are due next year if it is serious about improving the NHS pay-setting process, says UNISON today (Wednesday).
UNISON says the best 75th birthday present the health secretary could give the NHS would be to agree to start pay negotiations in the autumn, well in advance of next April’s wage boost for NHS staff.
That would be the most sensible approach for ministers to take, says UNISON. It would build on the recent Agenda for Change wage settlement, show NHS employees the government is committed t...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 5, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release nhs pay Source Type: news
Cutting migrant staff without a proper plan to fix care is beyond foolish, says UNISON
Commenting on proposals by the New Conservatives group of MPs that would reduce drastically the number of visas for overseas care workers, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said today (Monday):
“The care system is on its knees, as any family trying to secure decent care for a relative is only too aware.
“The government has done nothing to solve the growing crisis in care. Now a group of its MPs want ministers to make things a whole lot worse.
“Thankfully Number Ten has dismissed these calls. But under the government’s watch a care sector that’s many thousands of employees short has beco...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 3, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Anthony Barnes Tags: News Press release care visas social care workers Source Type: news
Fighting to protect workers ’ rights
UNISON is urging MPs to speak out and oppose the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill when it gets its second reading later today.
UNISON is deeply concerned by the Bill, which is intended to prevent public bodies from “being influenced in their procurement or investment decisions by political or moral disapproval of the conduct or policy of a government or any other public authority in a foreign territory”.
The union is particularly concerned that the Bill would prohibit public bodies from being influenced by “political or moral disapproval of foreign states when making procurement and investme...
Source: UNISON Health care news - July 3, 2023 Category: UK Health Authors: Martin Cullen Tags: Article international Source Type: news
