Unions Reject Paltry Pay Offer

In response to the trade unions' national pay claim of a flat rate increase of £1,733 or 6% (whichever is higher), the employers have offered a measly 3% flat rate.

All three trade unions involved in the bargaining process are recommending that their members reject the offer, saying industrial action may be the only way to improve the offer.

In rejecting the offer, the trade unions said that with inflation at 2.6%, the tiny pay rise would do nothing to close the ever-widening gap between pay in the private sector and pay in local government, and nothing to end the chronic problem of low pay. Over 2/3rds of the local government workforce earn less than the Council of Europe's decency threshold of £14,559, whilst the average national wage is over £21k.

UNISON Manchester Branch Secretary Mo Baines said, "3% is an insult. Local Government staff are fed up with being the cindarellas of pay awards. I urge everyone to reject this paltry pay offer. "

35 hours for all in view

Agreement was reached with the City Council in December to seek to reduce working hours down to 35 for all, as reported in the last edition of the Mancunion. Branch Secretary Mo Baines said,

"the deal would mean that employees currently working 37 hours will have their hours cut to 36.5 with no loss in pay by April this year, whilst part timers (of 37 hours) receive an increase in their hourly rate. And obviously, those working 35 hours will not have their hours increased."

Over the next three years, half hour reductions will harmonise the workforce on 35 hours for all.

"Tough negotiations are continuing, but following the December agreement, it is imperative that Branch negotiators are able to make sure that the 35 hours for all campaign becomes a reality. This is crucial because the way in which working hours are reduced will help UNISON and the Council deal with complex issues like bonus, the low pay supplement and other pay issues."

Calling time on overtime?

The Council has long held the view that overtime premium payments are no longer compatible with a 'modern working environment.' Many Best Value reviews have looked at the provision of Council's services outside of the 9 - 5 Monday to Friday norm. In the private sector, there is a growing trend to employ people on 'flat rate' contracts that would in the past have attracted premium rates. For example, shop workers now commonly work a Sunday at the same pay rate as for a weekday.

Mo Baines, UNISON Branch Secretary, acknowledges that some services will always require 24 hour cover, such as those provided by UNISON members in Social Services, but rejects the idea that all staff should be conditioned to a 24/7 McJob employment culture.

"UNISON recognises that people now have greater expectations of their public services, but just what calls are made on the Council outside of normal hours? With the obvious exceptions in some front line services, the idea that the public is queuing up to get into the town hall on a Sunday is simply ridiculous. In fact, with greater and more innovative use of information and communication technologies, we should be capable of limiting the time staff are expected to work irregular or late hours whilst actually improving services."

"We are not dinosaurs' but the reality is that if trade unions simply allow all working hours to be deregulated, it is the employees who will suffer, as well as the services they deliver, despite all the fluffy rhetoric of Work-Life Balance policies."

"Quality time with family and friends, caring for dependants or undertaking lifelong learning must not be seen as a luxury. It should be a basic right in a modern society. A 24/7 employment culture is not 'new', it is a regressive step that take workers back a century."

UNISON wishes to see any work outside of the 'norm' be regulated and based on proven need. It is clear in some sections, such as in the Education Department, that it is the high levels of unfilled vacancies that exaggerate overtime costs. UNISON is pushing for clear justifications for out of hours working practices as well as a review of how the Council could move to premiums based on 'rest day' or 'short notice' overtime working.

Positively Public Meeting

Contrary to what you might be led to believe, not every politician and not even many Labour MPs believe in privatising our public services.

At a packed meeting in February, Branch Secretary Mo Baines joined ex-UNISON General Secretary Rodney Bickerstaffe and Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd in outlining a vision for world class public services in the UK.

All three speakers agreed that well funded services delivered by highly trained and well paid staff and which are democratically accountable to and owned by service users are proven as the most efficient and effective way of providing decent public services.

PFIs and PPP have been shown to be far more expensive than standard, proven forms of public sector investment. Not only does the private sector have to borrow at higher rates than Government, and profit need to be made, but the private company consortiums (or is that cartels) involved in bidding for hospital, school and housing contracts often refuse to take any risks attached with the 25 to 30 year long contracts.

Further, as Rodney Bickerstaffe stated, "there should be no room in our society for extracting profit from the ill, from the needy and from our children's education system." If you want to know more about UNISON's Positively Public camapaign, click the link on our website

…STOP PRESS…

Research from the Cardiff Business School raises major questions over how far public-private partnerships should be allowed to go in delivering public services. The report states that handing services to the private sector leaves local authorities "hollowed out" and at the mercy of an imperfect marketplace, which destroys local government's ability to respond to changing targets and priorities.

Whose Care Trusts?

As many social services employees will be aware, the new Health and Social Care Act 2001 includes radical provisions to set up new NHS bodies called Care Trusts.

These will have the power to commission and deliver social services as well as health care. However, Section 31 of the 1999 Health Act already allows locally agreed partnerships to pool budgets, lead commissioning and integrate service delivery.

At a recent national UNISON forum, attended by Assistant Branch Secretary Pete Banks, social services officials and UNISON reps from across the country met to discuss the new proposals. Fears were voiced that a medical model of care will dominate, with service users being treated as patients who have conditions to be 'cured', resulting in a step backwards from the progress that has been made towards empowering clients. Others saw Care Trusts as a take over by the NHS.

Pete Banks said, "Care Trusts will simply create even more upheavals in the delivery of social services, for precious little gain. UNISON opposes the undemocratic Care Trusts model, both nationally and locally, because there is no evidence to suggest they are needed in this form." "Our policy is to support further co-operation between the NHS and local government by encouraging the use of Section 31 flexibilities."

.…STOP PRESS…

The Local Government and the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) recently warned ministers that Social Services will not be able to meet the needs if children and older people without a £3.5bn increase in investment over the next four years.

UNISON's Good for Your Health!

After the successful Health Fair held back in June at the Powerhouse in Moss Side, a number of similar events will be held in different locations across the city in the coming months.

A wide range of help and advice on developing a healthy lifestyle will be available, including advice on smoking cessation, diet and exercise. Gwen Colgan, Assistant Branch Secretary, has played a large part in getting the Health Fairs established, so if you want more information, please contact her at the Branch Office.

Colombians Win First Battle for Public Services

Lead by wealthy countries like the USA and the UK, privatisation is now a global trend. Services such as health care, education and utilities which working men and women have struggled to see developed for the benefit of all, are now under attack by profit hungry corporations.

Colombian public sector workers and their trade unions have been waging their own battle against the privateers, and this in a country where, over 1500 trade unionists have been murdered in the last ten years alone takes rare courage. Over Christmas, hundreds of trade union members in Cali, Colombia's third city, occupied the municipal services building in response to the Government's decision to privatise the city's public services.

Supported by thousands of the city's residents disgusted by the Government's undemocratic and secretive process of decision making, the building was occupied until the Government satisfied all the demands of the residents and trade unionists. Typically in such struggles, the army and right wing death squads are used to violently stop protests and dissent, but such was the public outcry, locally, nationally and internationally, that the Government was forced to deal peacefully with the people.

Two trade union leaders from Cali talked about the occupation at a recent meeting in Manchester. Although they know that theirs is literally a life or death struggle, they continue to work in the public interest because they know that if they don't, conditions will get even worse. If you want to know more about how you can help support our brave colleagues abroad, contact Isobel McVicar, International Officer at the Branch Office.

Women's National Conference 2002 Report Back

Representing the Manchester Branch at this years conference in Cardiff were Assistant Branch Secretary Gwen Colgan and Heather Fairbanks, steward in MEDC, who both played an active part in the proceedings.

General Secretary Dave Prentis opened the conference with a direct message for Tony Blair, stating that the real wrecker of decent public services was privatisation, not trade unions.

Delegates overwhelmingly backed a key motion that noted that privatisation had affected women particularly severely. Inequality increased whilst the glaring pay gap between male and female earnings continues as service sector multinationals take over public services previously delivered by Central and Local Government.

Other debates centred on the ongoing shortage of good quality, affordable childcare in the UK, on international issues and on the effect of the Government's policy on asylum seekers. Despite Home Secretary David Blunkett's assurance that the humiliating voucher scheme (run for profit by a multinational) would be scrapped, it continues to devastate refugees' lives.

One delegate described how one asylum seeker along with her two very young children were 'dispersed' to a derelict house in Nottingham. "The nearest shop was three miles away and she had to walk, carrying her children. She only received vouchers for her three year old. The rest of the vouchers did not arrive for 10 days." A good measure of a decent, civilised society is how it treats those most vulnerable people within it. And, lest we forget, the UK is the fourth richest country on the planet. The policy on asylum seekers is as the delegate said, "disgraceful, degrading and plain wrong."

Landmark Deal with SERCO Close

Branch Officers are close to signing a deal with SERCO - the contractor selected by the Council to take over Manchester's Indoor Leisure services. UNISON always campaigns to keep services in-house, but when presented with an un-winnable situation continues to fight for the best deal for our members.

SERCO have now agreed to reach a 'Memorandum of Understanding' and have also accepted a raft of key principles underpinning the fair transfer and treatment of existing staff, as well as new starters. Jon Adams of SERCO has stated that he will give an assurance that new employees will be engaged on Manchester City Council terms and conditions of employment. Staff will also be able to join the Council pension scheme and SERCO will not impose changes to terms and conditions without agreement - something contractors have been known to do within days of a new contract commencing.

Currently, when Council services are taken over by the private sector, new starters are usually recruited on worse terms to those staff TUPE'd (transferred) across to the company. This leads to a 'two tier' workforce and, over time, often results in terms and conditions for all being dragged down to the lowest common denominator.

UNISON and our General Secretary Dave Prentis are continuing to press the Government to resolve the 'two tier' workforce issue. However, in Manchester, the agreement with SERCO will help industrial relations in the contract area. This deal looks set to be an important precedent in how the Council contracts with the private sector. As ever though, the devil is in the detail, but UNISON will continue to negotiate hard on behalf of its members to ensure the best possible agreement is reached.

News In Brief:

• Don't forget, the Branch Annual General Meeting will be held March 15th at 2.30 in the Friends Meeting House, behind Central Library. All members are welcome, and at least one rep from each workplace should attend.

• UNISON democracy counts. Have you cast your vote in the Branch elections?

• "Your Council Tax bill has changed because of a change in your circumstances - the change is that you are dead." You couldn't make it up, but the privatised benefits unit in one London borough was issuing such letters - Best Value for beyond the grave?

• In support of the UNISON Positively Public campaign to promote world class public services accountable to and run for the interests of the public, UNISON Manchester is interested to hear about the progress of local PFI schemes. If you've any information, email or write to the editor at the Branch in the strictest confidence.

• 90% of the public want no more privatisations, so why does New Labour insist on the private ruin of the Post Office? Answers on a share certificate…