Christmas is coming up and there will be bills to pay in January,  in addition we realises that these are difficult times for our members and so you will be pleased to know that we have successfully negotiated with the Council to ensure that your strike pay deductions will not be taken from your salary until February 2012.  The formula for deductions is 1/260th of your annual salary, in line with the law and an important high court case UNISON won in relation to strike pay deductions.

The law and strike pay deductions

In 2008 the High Court issued an important judgment that had the potential to affect all workers who take strike action anywhere in the UK.

The effect of the decision was that employers must include payments for annual leave and bank holidays when calculating how much salary to deduct for strike action.

UNISON's legal services department brought a test case, Cooper v Isle of Wight College, following strike action to protect members' pension rights on 26 March 2006.

The union decided to bring the case because of a long-standing practice in the further education sector of calculating the amount to be deducted on the basis of the value of the day's salary after excluding employees' holiday and annual leave days.

This formula was chosen by many colleges on the advice of the Association of Colleges and resulted in around 1/228th of the annual salary being deducted for a single day's strike.

They argued that this is because the value of the workers' services to the employer is only provided on the working days - and not on days that are taken off on leave - even though the wages paid for those services are also paid over the holiday period.

One of the colleges that adopted the advice from the Association of Colleges was the Isle of Wight College.

UNISON has always accepted that employers are entitled to deduct wages for time spent on strike, but this deduction should be equivalent to what would otherwise be paid to the worker for the day.

That is why we have consistently argued that the correct method of deducting salaries during strike action is to deduct the weekend and other non-working days - but not annual leave or bank holidays - resulting in a formula of 1/260th of the annual salary for a day's strike.

The amounts of money deducted were small, but the principle of the case is much bigger and, for many members, there was an important issue that needed to be resolved with this test case.

UNISON argued that the 1/260th deduction was explicable by the fact that, under their contracts, the employees in whose name the test case was taken - national further education and sixth form committee member Stephen Cooper, together with two other members at the college, Graham Crouch and Christopher Rann - worked a 37-hour week, but that each was "entitled to receive ... normal remuneration for all bank and public holidays normally observed in England and Wales and to a further 25 working days in each holiday year".

UNISON argued that their annual salary had to be apportioned between the working hours as defined in the contract, spread over the 52 weeks of the year; producing a formula for calculation of a days pay of 1/260th of the annual salary.

After considering the question, the High Court agreed with UNISON's lawyers and found that the correct formula for deductions was 1/260th of the annual salary and that the defendant college was not entitled to deduct the sums that it had.

The High Court issued a declaration stating that the deduction of 1/228th of the salary was unlawful.

The court also awarded UNISON its costs.

The decision means that the Isle of Wight College should have deducted only 1/260th of the annual salary of a striker for the one-day strike and not the 1/228th that it did.

The ruling has implications for all employers making deductions from employees' wages for taking strike action. It makes it clear that employers will fall foul of the law if they exclude annual leave and bank holidays from their calculations.

This has permanently removed what was perceived as a thorn in the side for workers who are already sacrificing their incomes to lawfully advance their industrial causes.

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Thank you to all our members and Stewards who supported the strike on 30 November. This was a historic day as thousands of Wakefield Unison members united to say: "Enough is enough" in reply to the attack on their pensions.

Council Buildings and the vast majority of schools were closed and pickets were out at their workplaces from very early morning.

Teachers, Nurses, Bin men, Firemen, Carers, Social Workers and Prison Officers, were among the 2,000 people demonstrating against attacks on their pensions which showed the strength of feeling and support.

Much of Wakefield ground to a halt as thousands of trade union members marched through the City and crammed into Cathedral Square for the largest Trade Union Rally the City has seen in years.

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(3/11/11) The Council’s Cabinet met on 18th October 2011 and agreed a report which outlined how they aim to become a Catalyst Council.  In response, UNISON representatives sought an urgent meeting with the Council Leader to express our continued concern at the direction the Council is taking.

The proposals within the report seek wholesale change of service delivery and have been arrived at as a result of asking the providers in the marketplace what they would offer to deliver, which UNISON would condemn as a completely inappropriate basis for a major service delivery change.

The Council are looking at a series of options including expansion of the current partnership with Norfolk Property Services, develop a case for a joint venture partnership for corporate and transactional services, and to develop a “Local Authority Trading Company (LATC)”.

The proposed options will affect many Council employees and in our opinion is wholesale privatisation of Council services.

The report is in our view ideologically driven and uses the excuse in recommending the changes in Government spending cuts and legislation.

Whilst UNISON are fully aware that the Council is facing increasing pressure from Government to improve services and deliver efficiency savings, we do not share the Council’s view that this can only be delivered by external providers.

The Council’s case for change appears from the report to remain primarily economic with savings of £67million being made from 2015.  However, there is no indication how much they intend to save through these changes; the speculative claim in the report of “a 10 – 25% saving on the costs, saving between £10 - £25million over the term of any agreement” comes from comments during the market testing meetings and responses and at the upper end, this is likely to be an over-estimate.

However, more importantly and worryingly, there is seemingly little consideration of whether in-house changes could match or exceed this, thereby increasing our concern that there is a clear ideological (pro-outsourcing) angle to the proposals.  Of the specific recommendations we have a number of detailed concerns.

Review and Expansion of the Current Partnership with Norfolk Property Services

This is a huge problem; for starters, UNISON would argue that that contract would need to be tendered.  It is unbelievable that the Council would propose to give a contract for £25million a year to one company (NPS) without fully exploring other options, including in-house.

Develop a “Local Trading Company” (LATC) for Social Care Services

This is a high risk commercial option.  The report quotes three examples of this happening elsewhere – Essex, Kensington and Chelsea, and Stockport.  It has also happened in Sefton.

In the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea the company “Chelsea Cave” was put into liquidation in May 2011 by its independent directors.  The Council has written off £300,000 of equity investment, despite it planning to employ staff on zero hours contracts, and paying just above the minimum wage.

Develop a New Strategic Partnership for Corporate and Transactional Services

There are 3 options here to establish a strategic partnership – for corporate and transactional services, public realm services and for professional support services to schools.  The recommendation is to go for the corporate and transactional services and produce a further report on schools.

Therefore, it appears that the Council has already decided to establish a strategic partnership and now wants to work out which services to put in.  This makes no sense in terms of best value.  The Council should, in our view, be looking at the Services first, and then deciding on the options for providing them; again, in-house delivery should remain an option.

They also appear to be looking to include HR, Finance, Facilities Management, Strategic Procurement, Property and Asset Management, customer-facing services, Contract Centre, Revenues and Benefits, ICT and Legal Services because they are “areas of interest to the market” (section 5.5 of the report) rather than because it is a good idea from the perspective of the Council or service users.

Of further concern is that on the LATC proposal, the Council will transfer staff under TUPE on current terms and conditions.  However, any new employees after transfer may be recruited on different terms and conditions of employment, thereby operating on a two-tier workforce arrangement.  Different terms and conditions will, in reality, mean worse terms and conditions which, in the long term will, as evidence elsewhere shows, have a detrimental effect on those staff transferring. 

UNISON is at the forefront of arguing for public sector solutions to public sector reform.  There is a huge amount of evidence that public services deliver good value for money and quality services which cannot be matched by the private sector.

We have presented to the Council a document for agreement which, amongst a number of things, seeks to ensure that a properly resourced in-house service improvement plan will precede and inform any procurement process, and be included in any options appraisal exercise.  This would enable the employer and staff representatives working together to improve service delivery and avoid any need to contract out those services.

Unfortunately, despite a number of meetings with the Council, they have so far steadfastly refused to agree to our proposed document.

The increased threat of privatisation is clearly very worrying and arrives at the same time that we are facing attacks to our pensions, terms and conditions and pay.

The Branch will be meeting with all Council stewards to discuss how best to respond to the Council’s privatisation proposals.  We have already requested from the Council a copy of the business case for each service area, but we recognise that we will need to do more.  We will keep you informed of all developments.

Terry Ratcliffe
Branch Secretary

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(12/10/11) The Council have commenced consultation with UNISON with the intention of reaching a collective agreement regarding the following proposals:-

Incremental progression: frozen for a period of 2 years for employees that are due an annual increment.  Consideration has been given to the fact that this will realise savings without having a major impact on employees as they are not currently in receipt of the increment.  When incremental progression resumes it will carry on from where it left off and not from where an employee would have been, had incremental progression continued.

Annual leave: reduce annual leave for a period of 2 years by 3 days per year (pro-rata) for those employees who are at the top of their grade or on spot salaries.  The amount of leave was determined by it being roughly equivalent in monetary terms to an increment.  This aims to introduce fairness to the proposals as not all employees are affected by freezing incremental progression.

Enhancements: reduce all future amounts payable for undertaking weekend/night working, shift premiums including split shifts, public holidays and overtime.  In order to achieve immediate savings the protection of earnings policy will not apply to the new proposals.

Specific proposals are:

• Weekend/night working – reduce to 1.2 from 1.33

• Shift premiums – reduce to 2.5% from 5%

• Split shifts – reduce to 0.5% per day with a maximum of 2.5% per week from 1% to maximum of 5% per week

• Public holidays – reduce to time and a third and TOIL from double time and TOIL

• Overtime – reduce to one rate of 1.2 from 1.33 Monday to Saturday and 1.66 Sunday.  Reduce Bank Holidays to 1.33 from double time

• The first hour paid at plain time from 1st half hour paid at plain time

These proposals are the Council’s response to required savings of £22 million for 2012 with projected savings of £13 million and £12 million for 2013/14.  The Council told the unions that they are seeking to achieve these savings with minimum impact on services and/or compulsory redundancies.  The proposals apply to all staff except teachers.

In response, UNISON expressed anger and concern with the proposals and at this stage have given no indication whatsoever that they are in any way acceptable. 

As members employed on NJC Terms and Conditions, you are already on less favourable arrangements than those that exist elsewhere in the public sector.  This would particularly apply to annual leave.  In addition, we are already in the middle of a pay freeze imposed by the Government which in itself followed below inflation pay increases in 5 of the last 7 years before the freeze.

Whilst we realise these are difficult times and the impact of the comprehensive spending review is increasing pressure on all local authorities, including Wakefield, UNISON do not believe it is either fair or desirable to attack our terms and conditions of employment which were hard fought for over a number of years, particularly when, at this stage, the Council in putting forward the proposals, are not even giving any guarantee of job security in return for inferior terms and conditions.  Even if they do offer such an arrangement, should we allow our conditions of service to be whittled away in creating “bargain basement” conditions of service in Wakefield Council.

The proposals as submitted may also have equality implications as they may have a disproportional impact on certain groups of workers; in this case this would apply to women and it may be in breach of equality legislation and the Branch are taking advice on this matter from equality experts.

The Council has already indicated during initial discussions that whilst they are seeking a collective agreement with the union on the proposals, if this is not possible then they may seek to impose changes by issuing what is called a Section 188 letter which would, in effect, dismiss and re-engage staff on inferior terms and conditions of service.  UNISON would be strongly opposed to such an arrangement and would be keen to avoid this happening. 

It is clear that these are very challenging times for all of us.  UNISON will continue to negotiate with the Council in an effort to reach a satisfactory outcome.  We have already requested further information on the proposals and the alleged savings they claim to make but, to repeat, we have made it clear that we do not believe that these cuts are either necessary or fair.

We will continue to keep all members affected by the proposals fully briefed and updated on developments.  The Branch have called an emergency meeting of all Council shop stewards where it is vital that your views are taken into account.  Stewards should consult with you about these proposals in advance of the meeting and if you do not have a steward or are unsure, then either you or one of your colleagues should seek to become a steward.  If you are interested in doing this, then please contact your Branch Office on tel: 01924 305360 to discuss the matter further.

Further meetings with the employer are scheduled next week and we will issue further updates following the meeting.  It is our intention to hold meetings with members before the negotiations are concluded and again we will inform you of these arrangements shortly.

Finally, it is important during these difficult times of attacks on your terms and conditions, pensions, and the threat of privatisation arising from the Catalyst Council Report, that we increase our membership which, in turn, will increase our bargaining strength.  The more members we have the stronger we will be in protecting your terms and conditions, jobs, pensions.  If possible, talk to your colleagues or friends who may not be in the union about what is happening and about what the union is doing. 

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(28/6/11) UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis and UNISON President Angela Lynes wish a happy retirement to Wakefield Branch Secretary Linda Bratley during the National Delegates Conference in Manchester.

Linda has been involved with the trade union since 1986 when she was working in the kitchen at the training unit, and had a discussion with her convenor and became a steward. Four years later, having developed and gained experience and confidence, she became a full time convenor for Wakefield and has been Branch Secretary for the last seven years. Linda has been involved at a regional level too and has made valuable contributions over the years.

Thank you Linda for all your hard work and for all the help you have given to others. Linda we all wish you a happy retirement.

The Government want us to Work Longer, Pay More and Get Less from our Pensions. We outline some of the main points:

The Government announced a cut in funding to “pay as you go” Public Service Schemes of £2.8 billion a year by 2014/15. Plus a further £1 billion cut in funding to the LGPS in England, Wales and Scotland.

This equates to just over a 3% contribution increase on average for members – or if you pay 6% a 3% addition is really a 50% increase in your contributions.

Contributions to be phased in “progressively” from 2012, with a 40% saving in 2012–13, another 40% in 2013–14 and the remaining 20% in 2014–15.

The Government wants to push back the State Pension Age (SPA) for women meaning that from November 2018 the SPA will be 65 for both men and women.

Lord Hutton has recommended switching to a career average scheme for public service workers by the end of the next parliament – i.e. 2015. So No Final Salary Schemes.

From April 2020 the SPA will be 66 for both men and Women. Under current legislation the SPA is due to rise to 67 between 2034–2036 and to 68 between 2044–2046.

Lord Hutton has stated that with the exemption of “uniformed services” retirement should increase in line with SPA. For those now 34 or younger it would be 68. For those between 34 and 42 it is 67. For those between 42 and around 57 it will be 66.

The Government has laid legislation which will mean increasing public service pensions by Consumer Price Index (CPI) instead of Retail Price Index (RPI) from April 2012.

The consequences are very significant. CPI is typically, on average, 0.7% per year lower than RPI.

The Council are continuing to press ahead with the Catalyst Council approach and UNISON have continued to register our objection and disappointment but the Council have recently gone ahead with road shows that were attended by the private sector regarding the services we supply. Any outsourcing will be a threat because the Government has started a consultation on Fair Deal. This is the agreement that enables TUPE transferred staff to either remain in the public services pension scheme or be provided with a “certified” broadly comparable scheme.

There is a real danger that the Government will seek to scrap this because of the relative costs to private companies that bid for public service contracts. This would leave TUPE transferred staff at the pensions mercy of private contractors.

For the latest information see your branch website www.wakefield-unison.org.uk

UNISON recently awarded 5 Wakefield based social workers for their outstanding social work and commitment to their profession.

The awards were presented to Christine Fawcett, Hannah Ferguson, Susan Frank, Sandra Manuel, and Carolyn Scott at UNISON’s annual conference in Manchester recently after being nominated by colleagues and managers. The council’s cabinet member for adults and health Pat Garbutt was recently quoted in the Wakefield Express as saying: “This is a wonderful achievement for the five social workers themselves and a reflection of the excellent standard of social care in this district. It makes a refreshing change to see them rewarded like this for their professionalism and commitment.

Congratulations to the award winners and I hope their achievement will inspire others to go that extra mile to look after the people in their care.” Corporate director for family services Elaine McHale was also quoted as saying: “Winning five out of thirteen national awards for outstanding work is a credit to these individual social workers”. The awards scheme was instigated by UNISON to recognise the achievements of some of the 40,000 social workers who are currently members of UNISON.

General Secretary of UNISON Dave Prentis said: “Every day social workers help thousands of children and vulnerable adults but this work often goes unseen. It really is one of the toughest jobs going”. Our branch Secretary Linda Bratley who was present at the conference in Manchester said: “I was extremely proud to see social workers from Wakefield receive five out of the thirteen awards. It’s a great reflection of the standard of care all our members working in the caring profession provide on a daily basis; they are a great team”.

Our Branch Secretary, Linda Bratley is retiring.
We look back fondly at her time with us at the branch.

Linda Bratley started working with the local authority on relief school meals and the first question she was asked on day one was “Are you in the union” and was promptly given an enrolment form to sign.

Her first permanent job with Social Services started in 1985 as a Kitchen assistant and while going through a restructure it was decided that they needed a union steward so Linda stepped into the role. Linda became a full time worker representative in 1990 for manual staff employed by Social Services and the role grew over the years into looking after all members across the board.

Linda’s first experience in representing a member in a disciplinary was a success that she continued to build upon. Linda says that she has seen many changes over the years and has attended many demonstrations one particular favourite memory is of splashing policemen by jumping into puddles while on a march in London during the miner’s strike.

She has been a Regional and National Officer Lay Member, and has been a member of the National Local Government Committee also a member of many other regional bodies. Linda became UNISON MDC Branch Secretary in 2005 and has remained in the post ever since. When asked if she enjoys the role Linda always replies “Yes, have done all the time even though things have changed so much. I especially enjoy it when I’m representing individual members.”

Terry Ratcliffe our branch Chairperson says “Linda has been a keen supporter of our local sports teams both professional and amateur and was very involved in bringing a couple of Russian players over for some experience of the British game. She has always been a very social person as I have experienced and when most times I’ve run out of energy and gone to bed it’s not unusual for Linda to be up dancing ‘til the early hours. She is a very caring person with both family and friends and anyone else who has needed assistance; always willing to put others first. On a personal note it will be a sad day when Linda goes to pastures greener over the water to Ireland. She is not just a work colleague but a close friend and I will greatly miss her energy, knowledge, and friendship.

I am sure you will support me in wishing Linda all the best for the future. So to Linda and her family Good luck and best wishes, XXX.”

Two first-timers tell of their experiences of National Conference in Manchester.

“It was really interesting to see how Conference works and take part in the democratic process of deciding policy and setting the agenda for the coming year. It was also extremely valuable to hear debate on important issues such as the attacks on public services and the effect this is having on local communities. Listening to reports on the cuts and the impact they are having on the people who provide and use public services was very concerning; however the positive action against these attacks by UNISON activists and members made me feel there was still hope and that by working together we can fight back to protect these essential services!”
Sally Mills

“Sally and I were lucky to be first time delegates at UNISON’s National Conference 21 – 24 June in Manchester. Conference is the highest decision making body of the Union. We spent the week debating and discussing the policies and rules of the union. There were 2000 delegates representing over a million members and we were very proud to be representing our Wakefield Local Government branch. The President of the Union, Angela Lynes, presided over Conference and chaired all the debates on policies put forward such as defending the right to strike and defending our pensions. We were able to put forward the views of the branch on the policies that were being debated and it was great to hear that attacks on public sector pensions will be defended and are seen as a key priority for UNISON. At the end of Conference a new president, theatre nurse Elanor Smith, was named and Dave Prentis, General Secretary presented our very own Branch Secretary Linda Bratley with a bouquet of flowers to thank her for her many years of service before she retires.”
Kaye Potter

The Branch would like to introduce you to the Wakefield MD UNISON DISCOUNT CARD, the new arm of the Membership Services programme available to members of our Branch.

The key facet of the UNISON DISCOUNT CARD MEMBERSHIP is the card which enables you, as a Branch Member, to present it in-store with local independent retailers, of which there are over 22,000 across the UK, to achieve a minimum of 10% discount on products and services the business provides.

Discounts are available across a variety of categories including restaurants, beauty salons, gyms, clothes shops, jewellers, garages, cafes, takeaways, sandwich shops, theme parks and many, many more!

UNISON DISCOUNT CARD MEMBERSHIP also creates the opportunity for members to personalise your own card with discounts relevant to you following the launch of the programme on the 1st of September 2011 by encouraging you to recommend specific local independent retailers you would like to see offer a discount / benefit, it could be the local restaurant, sandwich shop or the gym used two or three times a week or indeed a carpet fitter, removals company or children’s entertainer only ever required once!

In addition your UNISON DISCOUNT CARD MEMBERSHIP also provides you unique access to discounts with over 300 prestige national high street brands.

Whereas all the local independent discounts are redeemable on production of the UNISON DISCOUNT CARD in-store, the national brands are redeemed in five different ways;

 On production of the card in-store (Tenpin, Spirit Health Clubs, AUTOGLASS, Baron Jon, F.Hinds Jewellers, Greenwoods Menswear, 1860 Suit Hire, Lightwater Valley and Pleasurewood Hills Theme Parks etc).

 Online or over the phone quoting a code (RAC, Apple, Thorntons, Virgin Experience Days, Alton Towers, LEGOLAND, Sealife Centres, West Midlands Safari Park, Cadburys Gifts, AA Driving Lessons etc).

 By re-loadable gift card which can be topped up daily, weekly or monthly tailored to meet the needs of the end user (ASDA, Sainsbury’s, H. Samuel, Ernest Jones).

 Via pre-purchased vouchers from the dedicated UNISON DISCOUNT CARD member gift voucher helpline (Love2Shop High Street Gift Voucher, Comet, Boots, Leisure Vouchers and M&S).

RETIREMENT OF PAM NEWTON

Our branch office manager has worked for UNISON and NALGO for over 28 years and will be leaving us on 31 July. Pam has been a valued member of the branch team and will be missed very much and we would like to thank her for all her efforts over the years and wish her a very happy retirement with hopefully lots of hiking holidays and quality time with the grandkids.

On Friday 29 July the branch will welcome any and all visitors who wish to call in for light refreshments at any time to wish Pam well before she leaves. Linda Bratley

New Recruit to Staff
The Branch will be welcoming Adele Arnett to our office team
on 8 Aug and look forward to working with her.