This is Living Wage Week and the Living Wage Foundation has announced an increase in the real living wage rate to £9.50 (£10.85 in London). The good news is that approximately 250,000 low-paid workers can expect a much-needed pay rise from today. But we mustn’t forget that the real living wage is voluntary, so the bad news is that many others – many of them putting their own health on the line fighting COVID-19 – will be less fortunate and will continue to live on poverty pay. Care staff will also lose out despite supporting the most vulnerable – our loved ones in the most need – throughout the pandemic. The increase also means thousands of the lowest-paid health workers employed by the NHS at the heart of the fight against COVID – cleaners, domestics, porters, security staff and drivers – will no longer earn a living wage as they are employed by private contractors, stuck on the national minimum wage. Our union has a proud tradition of fighting poverty pay. UNISON was the first union to back a statutory national minimum wage, though we recognised early on that it wasn’t a living wage. In fact the whole living wage movement was driven in the early days of this century by this union, its branches and its activists. And your union has never been afraid to shame employers and take industrial action to fight poverty pay. The fight for proper pay goes through this union like a stick of rock. It informs everything we do, including our current No Going Back to Normal campaign. Now more than ever before, as our members fight coronavirus, there is a need – an absolute requirement – for the government to pay them properly, justly and fairly. You cannot praise public service workers for keeping our communities going, for saving lives, while simultaneously expecting the same people to survive on poverty pay. You cannot clap for our carers one minute and deny them a fair and just pay rise the next. They are not mutually compatible. They do not go together. And the public agrees with us. If you make a habit of thanking people for saving the nation you need to back up your words with deeds. The clock is ticking to right this wrong and your union will continue to fight on your behalf. No more poverty pay. No more going back to normal. More on No Going Back to Normal More on Living Wage Foundation The article Blog: Why we’ll never stop fighting for a real living wage for all first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/general-secretary-blog/2020/11/blog-well-never-stop-fighting-real-living-wage/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/634332024974491648
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UNISON’s branch resource review is progressing, despite the pandemic, with the aim of delivering a set of proposals to the national delegate conference in June 2021. This is where we are so far. Following a motion passed at the 2019 conference, a review group of UNISON members was tasked with reviewing the branch funding regime and how resources are allocated to help branches. In February 202, an online survey to all UNISON branches was issued to branch secretaries. The questions reflected the existing priorities laid out in the code of good branch practice. In total, 357 branches responded – over 42%. Perhaps unsurprisingly, response rates varied. Of the regions, the response was highest in Northern Ireland, closely followed by Northern Region; of the service groups, local government and health provided the highest response. Despite a decade of austerity, on the whole branches still felt that they had received the support they required to fulfil the main priorities of the union, but this was now under threat. There were three distinct areas where senior branch officers felt they needed improved support to do more. These were:
Finding out moreWishing to dig deeper, the union then commissioned an independent body, BritainThinks, to help review members conduct in-depth research with branch officers – to explore and understand the challenges their branches face and what kind of support and resources would be most helpful to them. Interviews were conducted with 15 branches – mostly with branch secretaries. The interviews highlighted a number of key challenges affecting a large proportion of branches:
Branch representatives did not feel that increased levels of financial resources at the branch level were the solution to all their problems. UNISON president and review group chair Josie Bird said: “The review is making good progress and we will be coming to regional meetings around the country to meet members and hear what their branches want. “The pandemic is not stopping this work and we want to deliver a report for our annual conference to consider.” There will be more updates in the coming months, prior to the NDC in June. The article Branch resources review – where we are so far first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2020/11/branch-resources-review-far/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/634332024072814592 Normal feels a long way away now, right? Especially now that all four UK countries are back in some sort of lockdown. Our public services are under significant pressure to care for, protect and keep our communities going – and you are at the sharp end again. Against this backdrop, the Chancellor is planning to announce his spending plans for the next year later this month. So, we need to remind him that, as he thinks about the funding of our NHS, local government and public services more widely, we can’t go back to austerity. We need an end to underfunding, understaffing, underpaying and under resourcing if we expect our public services to deal with what’s coming at them right now. So, if you haven’t already done it, please sign our open letter to the Chancellor and Prime Minister and ask your colleagues, friends and family to do the same. UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis commented: “After the first lockdown more than a million people viewed our campaign film about the need to invest in public services and give our members a decent pay rise. “Tens of thousands have signed our open letter. In the weeks ahead I will be sending this to Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak. We need them to know the strength of our feeling and the breadth of our support for our demands. Please show your support.” Public service workers deserve better. Help us keep the pressure on. More on our campaign – No Going Back to Normal The article Last chance to add your voice and help support public services first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2020/11/last-chance-add-voice-help-support-public-services/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/634324420467490816 A UNISON survey has revealed that that women are being increasingly disadvantaged by the COVID-19 pandemic, with those at retirement age hit the hardest. Women make up three-quarters of the part-time labour force, so were hit particularly hard when part-time jobs fell by 70% in the first three months of the pandemic. In response to UNISON’s equality survey, 7.5% of women said that they have lost money from their wages, and 12% are more in debt since the pandemic began. To make matters worse, these effects will be long-lasting, as low pay and job loss translates into pension poverty for women. UNISON national officer Josie Irwin said: “Women born in the 1950s already know what discrimination at work feels like. They are already planning how best to manage on a meagre pension – they were dealt a hammer blow when the last Tory government raised the state pension age with next to no notice. “Many are struggling to make ends meet with precious little support from the government.” An appeal to the Court of Appeal led by Backto60, supporting women being who felt cheated out of pension entitlements, was dismissed on 15 September 2020. Further legal action is unlikely to succeed. Ms Irwin said: “It’s now time MPs intervened to give them the financial help many so desperately need.” She concluded: “We need to speak out about pensions injustice now. When the country starts to count the cost of the pandemic, we can’t allow the burden to fall on women again”. The article COVID reverses progress on financial equality first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2020/11/covid-reverses-progress-financial-equality/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/634324420146675712 With staff shortages across the NHS, the UK’s immigration policy is arguably punishing patients more than anyone else and potentially costing lives. Arun Kumar is a senior nursing assistant for the NHS who came to the UK on a family visa in 2019. When the pandemic struck, he was one of the thousands of migrant workers who served the nation on the COVID-19 frontline. Arun explains: “I’ve always worked in operating theatres. When the pandemic struck, I was redeployed to COVID-19 wards and worked in an Intensive Care Unit. I had to leave my wife and child to go and stay in university accommodation for four months. “It was really challenging. I had many sleepless nights, not knowing when I might get infected. It was a terrible experience seeing so many patients suffering. But to add to this, there just aren’t enough staff. “I work at several London hospitals, and on shifts where there are supposed to be four staff, there are only two or three. There are so many patients you can’t cope. I believe more staff would save more lives.” To add to his strain, Arun was preoccupied with worry about his visa expiring in October. “The government had said they would extend NHS workers’ visas, and I knew mine was due to expire. “I used to check the immigration rules every single day. On top of the mental and physical strain of working through the pandemic, I was so anxious I would have to leave the country.” In practice, the government only extended the visas of 3,500 migrant workers. ‘People are dying because there aren’t sufficient staff’The NHS reports over 100,000 vacancies in health and social care. In spite of this, the government is reluctant to employ or extend the visas of migrant workers like Arun. When Arun’s visa expired in October, he was forced to move back to India, leaving the NHS even more short-staffed. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) argued that Arun’s job, Senior Nursing Assistant, should be included on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). The SOL is a Home Office list of jobs which are in short supply in the UK, and are encouraged to be filled by migrant workers. On 22 October, Home Secretary Priti Patel rejected the MAC recommendations, meaning that Arun, a qualified and experienced NHS Senior Nursing Assistant, is now in India when he’s desperately needed in London hospitals. Arun said: “I was so upset when I heard about this decision. People are dying because there aren’t sufficient staff. And even then, all the government wants to do is stop immigration. “These immigration measures punish NHS patients. When there are so many vacancies, it makes me so uneasy to see what the government are doing. Even if half the empty jobs were filled, so many more lives would have been saved.” ‘In the UK only claps are good enough? Do they have no shame?’“It doesn’t have to be this way, look at other countries,” says Arun. “In France, they increased the salaries of healthcare staff to recognise their work in the pandemic. Nurses and healthcare workers received an average monthly increase of €180. In the UK, only claps are good enough, and yet MPs are getting a £3,000 pay increase next April. Do they have no shame?” Arun’s manager says she’s keeping his job open for him until December, in the hope that the government will accept and implement the MAC recommendations and he might be able to come back. He still checks the government website every day. “There are so many people like me who genuinely want to work and contribute to the NHS,” says Arun. “I am experienced and qualified. When the NHS is short-staffed, why does the government want to restrict us from working?” The article ‘People are dying’ – how the Home Office is risking lives in the NHS first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2020/11/people-dying-home-office-risking-lives-nhs/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/634324419730341888 Commenting on a report published today (Saturday) by Age UK on the pay and conditions facing social care workers, UNISON assistant general secretary and co-chair of the Future Social Care Coalition Christina McAnea said: “These shocking findings are a wake-up call to government that enough is enough. “Care staff can’t go on being ignored, undervalued and left to exist on poverty wages. A wage boost is needed now to get them through the pandemic and attract new recruits. “A national care service would also bring about long overdue reform of the sector. It would drive up standards, boost pay and training and ensure the care service is put on an equal footing with the NHS.” Notes to editors: Media contacts: The article Care staff deserve equal pay with the NHS first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2020/11/care-staff-deserve-equal-pay-nhs/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/634313123970629632 Commenting on the increase in real living wage rates – to £9.50 (and £10.85 in London) – announced today (Monday) by the Living Wage Foundation, UNISON assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said: “While some 250,000 low-paid workers will get a wage rise today, many others on the Covid frontline will be less fortunate. “Care staff working in homes and out in the community remain stuck on poverty pay, despite vital work supporting society’s most vulnerable throughout the pandemic. “Today’s increase also means thousands of the lowest paid health workers employed by the NHS – cleaners, domestics, porters, security staff and drivers – no longer earn a living wage. “Their colleagues working on outsourced NHS contracts fare even worse. Most employed by private contractors are on the minimum wage, and lowly statutory sick pay if they get the virus or need to isolate. “It’s time the government did the right thing and gave a well-earned pay rise to all those caring for us, running essential local services and keeping us safe while the virus rages. “That’s the best way of thanking them all for everything they do and protecting our vital public services.” Notes to editors: Media contacts: The article Living wage increase leaves many thousands of health and care staff behind first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2020/11/living-wage-increase-leaves-many-thousands-health-care-staff-behind/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/634313123462021121 Health unions representing more than 1.3m workers across the UK have written to the Prime Minister calling for a pay rise for all NHS staff before Christmas. The letter to Boris Johnson from all 14 health unions warns the second virus wave is already placing hospitals under immense strain. It says staff are “stressed, burned out and fearful” and that asking them to carry on regardless is “increasingly unrealistic”. The letter adds: “Once more NHS staff will be relied upon to protect and care for us all. But health workers are exhausted, with many still recovering from the first virus peak.” NHS workers are not due a pay rise until April 2021, but the health unions say an early increase would help employees “feel valued, by the entire country, and the government too”. They state in the letter that raising pay this year could persuade staff looking to leave the NHS to change their minds. An early wage boost could also “prove attractive to thousands of much-needed potential NHS recruits”. The letter continues: “Bringing forward the wage rise in time for Christmas would also place the NHS in a better position to face the future.” The unions remind the Prime Minister in the letter that staff do their jobs because “they’re passionate about making people well again, and because they want to make a difference”. However, they point out that giving them a wage increase is “morally … the right decision to take”, adding: “It’s time to do more than praise their courage and dedication.” UNISON head of health Sara Gorton, who also chairs the NHS group of 14 unions, said: “The NHS can’t run without its staff. They all deserve better from porters to nurses. “Their dedication during the pandemic has been humbling. But no one is superhuman and many are feeling the strain. Boris Johnson must show he has a heart with a pay rise before Christmas. “It will boost exhausted staff going into the second wave and help the NHS attract much-needed new recruits.” Hannah Reed from the RCN, who is also acting secretary to the health unions’ group, said: “NHS staff have been underpaid for years and there has never been a more critical time for the government to address this. “Paying staff fairly will show they’re valued and begin to turn the corner on the record nursing and wider vacancy levels. “The NHS is facing an extremely challenging few months due to the combination of Covid-19 and winter pressures. Without urgent action on pay, vacancies across the NHS will continue to increase.” RCM executive director of external relations Jon Skewes, who is also treasurer for the NHS group of unions, said: “Midwives, maternity support workers and all our NHS staff do an incredible job day in, day out, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. “And never has that been more apparent, more needed, or more valued than now. There was a compelling case for an early and significant pay rise for NHS staff before the pandemic, and their dedication, commitment and professionalism make that a cast-iron one now. “I call on the Prime Minister to show that he meant his fine words about the work of our NHS staff during the first wave of the pandemic and give them the pay award they rightly deserve.” Notes to editors: Media contacts: The article Government must grant NHS staff a wage rise by Christmas, say health unions first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2020/11/government-must-grant-nhs-staff-wage-rise-christmas-say-health-unions/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/634313122449096704 As the second lockdown comes into force in England, the Westminster government has published new national restrictions to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. Under the government guidelines, libraries can still provide some services such as access to IT and click and collect. UNISON believes that even providing these services contains risks to staff and the public and that during this lockdown libraries need to close completely. “All parts of the UK have been experiencing increasing rates of infection,” said UNISON’s head of local government Jon Richards. “We all love our libraries, but it is paramount that libraries play their part in reducing the risk of transmitting the virus. “And ‘closed’ must mean putting a temporary stop to all click and collect services and access to IT provision too. “We need to save lives and protect our local communities and the NHS. It is simply not sensible to encourage unnecessary travel.” Mr Richards added: “We know that for hard working and dedicated library staff, this year has been incredibly difficult and stressful. “We know they are exhausted. Libraries delayed closing their doors back in the spring and now the government is threatening to keep library doors open during this long-predicted second wave. “It is particularly stressful for those library workers who are vulnerable or who live with vulnerable friends and family. Our library workers need the certainty that will come with their workplaces being closed for this next lockdown phase. “UNISON believes these measures are vital to keep everyone safe.” The article Safety in libraries must be a priority first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2020/11/safety-libraries-priority/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/633894127409512449 It’s been a tough year for people right across the world, as COVID-19 has swept around the globe – and with no sign of it disappearing any time soon. UNISON members have been among those facing the daily battle with the pandemic – not just in their work keeping our vital services going, but also on a personal and domestic front. There for You is UNISON’s unique welfare charity and, in the summer, introduced a new fund to help members who were struggling financially as a direct consequence of the new coronavirus. The first round of the COVID-19 response fund ran from May to July and distributed over £250,000 in grants to individual members in financial difficulty due to the pandemic. Such grants have made a massive difference. Carol (not her real name) is a paediatric nurse who lives with her partner and three school-age children in their own home in the North West. When lockdown came, she found herself working longer hours, while her partner was furloughed on 80% of his usual pay. “Bills went up – the shopping bill increased a large amount,” she explains. “One thing built up on top of the other. Spending on the food and the kids as my partner tried to occupy them at home … extra cooking and washing too.” Although her own earnings had increased slightly with the additional work, Carol’s transport costs had also risen, adding further pressure to the household budget. She’d worked to reduce her credit card bills and the family’s energy supplier “gave me a payment break on bills – it was good they did that, but then the bills went up by £40-50 a month” after the payment break ended. Then there was the council tax bill. As if all that wasn’t enough, the family washing machine packed in. Stress and worry“I felt like I was going under,” she says. “I was so stressed … it just felt like it was going to get worse and worse.” It was then that Carol saw from a UNISON email that, as a member, she could apply for one of the special COVID grants. She downloaded an application form and sent it off. That took care of the washing machine – and further grants lifted the pressure off with the energy bills and council tax. “I was really grateful for the help,” says Carol, adding that it meant a great deal. After lockdown eased, it was “nice when we could go out as a family again” – particularly for all of them to enjoy taking the family dog for a walk together. But as regional and local lockdowns and restrictions have come back into play, Carol and her family – like so many others – face new difficulties. When she spoke to UNISON, her partner was back at work, but one of the children had been sent home from school because another pupil had tested positive for the virus. Knowing that Carol is not alone and that many of our members face a difficult winter – and thanks to generous donations from UNISON and the CHSA (the COVID-19 Healthcare Support Appeal, a subsidiary of the RCN Foundation) – the charity is now delighted to be announce it will re-open its COVID-19 response fund on 16 November. Grants of up to £500 will be made to help members in financial difficulty as a result of coronavirus. Grants can support with day-to-day living costs: for example, if you or your partner are furloughed or shielding and relying on statutory sick pay. They can help you through loss of employment due to redundancy or loss of working hours or a second job, or towards housing costs like rent, mortgage or council tax arrears that have accrued since March. Online applications will open on 16 November and can be accessed here – make a date in your diary to apply, as we expect this limited fund to be in high demand. The article Our COVID response fund – helping members through the pandemic first appeared on the UNISON National site. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8239598 https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2020/11/covid-response-fund-helping-members-pandemic/ via IFTTT via https://childrensplayareadesigns.tumblr.com/post/633860023797399552 |