ReviewCity and County of Swansea

Inside

Public Service Not Private Profit November 2012➥

Pay cuts in the name of 'equality'Job Evaluation:

Austerityis Failing:Austerityis Failing:200,000march againstthe cuts

'Equality of the graveyard':What's gone wrong with Single Status

All members should be aware that theCabinet has now decided on a 'pay model'for the Job Evaluation (JE) pay and gradingexercise,whichhasbeundernegotiation formany years. The Cabinet had to decidebetween a 'council model', inherited fromthe previous administration, and a 'trade-union' model. The Cabinet chose theirCouncil model which, if it goes through, willresult in pay-cuts for 20% of staff. Theremaining 80% will either see a pay-increase or their pay will stay the same.

The trade union model was fairer than thecouncil model, with less people losing pay.It was therefore not without it's problems,but represented the best that could beachieved by negotiation alone - and which,even if adopted, would have to have beenaccepted by council workers. There wasalso expectations in some quarters that anewly-elected Labour council wouldhopefully not adopt the same higher-cutspackage of their Lib-Dem predecessors.After all people voted Labour back inprecisely because they expected them tomake a difference for the better and not theworse. Unfortunately any such hopes havebeen brutally dashed.

Cleaners, catering staff and care-workersthat get a pay increase deserve everypenny. But we should not be 'grateful' - it isa long-overdue recognition that they shouldhaveequal pay. It partially rights an injusticethat should not have occurred, assuccessive governments have donenothing to equalise pay for decades.

As members may have seen in the Evening

Post many of those who may lose pay -especially some male manual workers,(though they are not the only section by anymeans) - will suffer brutal pay cuts. Forsome members this scale of pay loss willmean huge hardship, and the loss of theirhome in some cases. Some local pressreports are disgracefully trying to turn'winners' and 'losers' against each otherwhen in truth it is local and nationalemployers who are at fault for low pay andpay cuts.

Furthermore male (and some female)workers on various bonus-rates have not'benefitted' at the expense of female (andsome male) workers who did not get these.

press reports aredisgracefully trying toturn 'winners' and'losers' against eachother when in truth itis local and nationalemployerswho are atfault for low pay andpay cuts.

In many instances the wide variety ofbonuses were part of historical regradingand pay deals. In reality bonus-rates did notmean high pay; it simply meant some hadhigher pay than some lower-paid sectionswho always deserved more.

For the 80% of staff who stand to not haveapay-cut this is, of course,welcomebut is in

the context of national pay-freeze, cuts intax-credits etc, which means all of us getless thanwe deserve. Prices of basic goodsare also going through the roof which eatsup any pay increase, whilst static-pay in thiscontext is also effectively a pay-cut.

We all therefore lose to some degree oneway or another, but for some it will be deadlyserious. The scale of pay cuts for somestaff therefore means that Unisoncannot support the proposals. Equal payfor equal work is a union principle - but so isnot condoning pay cuts.One of the ways hoped of mitigating lossesis by "enriching" jobs across the Authorityvia agreement of a new job descriptionwhich, along with increased duties andresponsibilities, will improve service levelsand will allow our members a reasonablewage. This has not been achieved to dateand agreement depends on the councilpaying more on its wage bill.

Although there will be an 'Appeals' process,if the experience of other councils isanything to go by, this will takes years. Anysuccessful appeal will be cold-comfort tothose that lose homes. Loss of pay meansindividuals and their families going without,huge stress, and breakdowns in people'spersonal and family lives. Unison also hasevidence that in some sections managersare removing tasks from workers in order to'justify' downgrading before anAppeal. Thiscan only be because of the pressure toreduce pay.

We are being sold the line that governmentdebt demands austerity, in particular areduction of spending in the public sector.

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Health & Safety:Personal protectionin theworkplace

continued from front page 200,000Marc200,000Marc

Single Status was introduced in 2008 and was supposedto deliver equal pay between male and female workers.Despite the Equal Pay Act of 1970 women workers -especially in some 'manual' jobs - were still receiving lesspay than their male colleagues in comparable jobs. Thedeals were supposed to deliver a common pay scale andharmonisation of conditions for all jobs.But then-chancellor Gordon Brown didn’t give localauthorities any extra money to pay the workers who weresupposed to gain from the deal. This always meant thatthere would be 'winners' and 'losers' - if the cake makingup our wages does not get any bigger, then any alterationof wage rates would always become divisive. In thecontext of 'austerity' today this contradiction becomeseven sharper. The government's notion of equality is arace to the bottom; everyone in a graveyard is equal butno-one wants that type of equality.

So in the name of 'equal pay', local councils across thecountry cut women and men’s wages and cut services. Inmany councils - Birmingham, Waltham Forest, Leeds,Edinburgh, Islington to name a few - tens of thousands oflocal government workers struck over the council attacks.But the campaigns didn’t link up in a national fightbackand in each council individual union branches foughtindividual battles against cuts.

Many workers were isolated and some felt they had nochoice but to go to the courts to get decent pay. Theunion leaderships used these legal cases as a furtherexcuse to prevent a national focus emerging, or in somecases even discussing single status. We should beagainst the idea that better paid workers should pay toraise lower pay. This would always be divisive and leadsone section of the workforce against the other when thepoliticians and employers are to blame.

What's gone wrongwith single status?

The losers in JE are at the sharp end of a pay squeeze thatwill effect us all.

We need to unite to stop this attack and stand to losemore inthe future unless we fight against austerity. The Council isconsideringall options for services includingprivatisationand'out-sourcing', although it is rhetorically committed to publicservices. Were it not for the trade-unions the Council wouldhave imposed the changes they initially wanted for ourannual-leave and sick-pay. These have been dropped innegotiations but there are harsherManagement of Absenceand Special Leave policies, plus lower rates of overtime.

Negotiations are continuing over the 'protection period';hospital appointments under Special Leave together withtime-off for special circumstances such as disableddependents; 'job enrichment' and shift allowances. Finallythere is the alarming 'mobility clause' in contracts wherebymembers could be asked to move anywhere within a 'sharedservices' area e.g. Ceredigion or even throughout Wales intime.Within this is also a proposal that you could be forced tomove to a 'similar' job anywhere in the Authority. How far allthis will go depends on all of us.

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“Europe strikesagainst austerity

In October, I marched with other members of our branch on the TUC's march 'For aFuture that Works'. While the demonstration was not as big as the one in March 2011, itwas still a huge demonstration, mainly of trade unionists, demanding an end to cuts.There were also big protests in Scotland and Belfast.

If anything the mood of the march was more serious than in 2011; then there wassomething of a carnival feel as marchers celebrated the might of the trade unionmovement as well as protesting against cuts, which had been announced but not yetimplemented in most cases. On Saturday, many of us marching had personal experienceof the effect of Con-Dem cuts and attacks on their jobs, pay, pensions and services weprovide. Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of cuts are still to come -maybe upwards of 80% of those announced have not been implemented - we've all feltthe pinch and are already struggling to make ends meet. The mood of the march was thatcuts have to be halted now.

This was something Ed Miliband obviously didn't grasp as he told the rally in Hyde Parkthat a Labour government would carry through cuts of their own; different cuts but cutsnonetheless. Perhaps Milliband has bought the myth put about by the Tory press thatattacking workers' conditions will make him appear a great statesman or maybe he justthinks that there is no alternative to workers paying the price for a crisis not of ourmaking. Either way, he was not well received and booed by large sections of his audiencefor proposing cuts on an anti-cuts demo. I didn't get up at 4am on my day off to be toldthat I would have to accept more cuts from a Labour government. Our union representsmembers across the whole of the public sector; we can not be in a position ofchampioning cuts to health workers instead of cuts to education workers. If all thatLabour can offer is job losses for social services rather than redundancies in refuse orvice versa how can we, as a union, continue to justifythrowing £millions of our members' money away onthe Labour Party?

Milibands reception couldn't have contrasted more withthe roars of support and the sea of hands that greetedGeneral Secretary of UNITE, Len McCluskey's call foran indication of support for one-day general strikeagainst cuts. He was one of 3 union general secretaries(the others were Mark Serwotka of PCS and Bob Croweof RMT) to demand from the main platform that theTUC organise such an action. To co-ordinate cross-union strike action and investigate the practicalitiesof organising a general strike is TUC policy since theoverwhelming passing of a motion moved by thePOA at September's conference. Our union'sdelegates voted for that motion and we needto discuss it amongst our members.Saturday showed that there is potentiallya huge reservoir of support for action, ifit is seen as having a chance of defeatingthis hated government.

We've marched together...Now strike together!

chAgainst the CutschAgainst the CutsUnison and all the other national trade unions joined together last month on October21st for the TUC march against cuts. Swansea Unison put on coaches for members toattend the march. Senior-steward Ron Job gives an eye-witness account of thedemonstration and raises an argument about what should happen next:

Trade unions walked out on the 14thNovember in general strikes acrossPortugal, Spain, Italy and Greece as wellas parts of Belgium. In Spain this is thesecond general strike in a year, andmoreworkers have been joining in the secondstrike. By the middle of the day manycities were filling up with protesters.There were also massive eveningprotests in Madrid and other cities.

Thousands marched in Lisbon inPortugal. There were organised sectionsof dockers with flares, local governmentand education workers, universitystudents and more. All the unions havehailed the strike as a success—eventhose that didn't support it—and anational demonstration has been calledin two weeks time.

In Italy thousands of workers andstudents converged on city and towncentres as part of afour hour general strike.“There is high supportfor the strike,”Leopoldo Tartaglia aspokesperson for theCGIL union said.“The crisis of unemploy-ment, a reduction inworking hours and thewage freeze means thateveryone has less. Weare now heading to asituation where the mass ofpeople are working poor. We will nothesitate to strike again to defeat theseattacks.”

In Greece unions called a three hourstoppage from noon. Around 10,000marched on the parliament in centralAthens, and many more held meetingsand demonstrations nearer theirworkplaces. Local government workersprotestedat the townhalls,manyofwhichare occupied.There was also a general strike called inthe Belgian city of Liege, where 6,000people came out and marched. AcrossBelgium rail workers also struck andblocked the rails, in protests at rail cutsplanned next month, and there werestrikesatanumberof factoriesandpowerstations. There were also protests incities across France, as well as in othermajor capital cities around Europe.

Here the strikes in Europe made thenews -but announcersmade thepoint

they were not happening in theUK. Nevertheless the TUC hasagreed to consult it’s membertrade-unions about the moodand practicalities for a generalstrike. This means getting the

views of the union membership.Do you think this would be

effective? Discuss this with yourworkmates and let us know what

you think

This newsletter is produced by the City and County of Swansea Unison Branch. Any letters, comments or suggestions for articles should be posted to the branch addressor emailed to Unison@swansea.gov.uk. Correspondence is not guaranteed to be published and contents may not necessarily reflect Unison policy.

Spor ts & Socia l websi te : www.suss.me.uk www.unison.co.uk

Contact us: Unison Office The Guildhall Swansea SA1 4PE01792 635271 unison@swansea.gov.uk

Unison has over 100 trained union reps throughout the council, schools andFEcolleges.Wewill advise,support and represent you collectively and individually on issues from sickness, disciplinaries to legalmatters insideandoutside theworkplace. If youneedadviceor representationpleasecontact theSeniorSteward(s) for your department below or go to your workplace steward. Alternatively please contact thebranch office.

Branch Secretary: Mike Davies / Asst. Secretary: Ian Alexander

EnvironmentTony Dearden - 07971 121533 (?)Pat Lopez - 07584 505792 (?)Social ServicesAlison O'Kane - 07856 641234Alison Davies - 07941 757853Martin Chapman - 01792 635271ResourcesGareth Parry - 07584 341240 (?)

EducationPat Lopez - 07584 505792Mark Otten - 07789 485009Eve Morse - 07532 232873 (after 3.30 pm)Chris Bell - 07967 551025Regeneration/HousingJohn Llewellyn - 07557 560093Roger Owen - 07941819229Gower CollegeRon Job - 07963 454041YO

URUNION

YOURUNION

Equality ActA number of UNISON members, particularly those working in schoolkitchens have raised concerns because some employers are providingsafety shoes or other items of PPE, but describing them as a part of thework uniform and therefore charging the workers. However, under theHealth and Safety at Work Act 1974, and the Personal ProtectiveEquipment Regulations, the provision of PPE must be at no cost to theworker.

Where a risk assessment has shown that there are risks to health andsafety which cannot be adequately controlled by othermeans, employersmust provide suitable PPE.

PPE is defined as all equipment (including clothing affording protectionagainst weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at workandwhichprotects themagainst oneormore risks to their health or safety.

In catering, PPE may include:Safetyshoeswhicharenon-slipandsteel-capped forprotectionagainst

objects dropped on the feetGloves or gauntlets to protect hands and arms fromburns and cleaning

agentsAprons and overalls to protect from hot splashesFace masks and goggles to protect against cleaning agents used for

ovens and hot plates.

Any PPE used by workers should be appropriate to the risk and suitablefor the wearer and should be maintained by the employer. If protectiveclothing is issued, catering staff should not be responsible for the cost ofcleaning it. Thismustalsobeborneby theemployer. Inaddition, staffmustbe trained in the use of any PPE issued. Training should include detailsof what to do if the PPE is not effective, dirty, damaged, or poorlymaintained.Both the safety representative and cateringworkersmust be consulted onthe used of any PPE.

Christopher Cooze, Health and Safety Officer

Under the Equality Act2010, the WelshGovernment obligesthe authority topublish evidence thatit is treating its stafffairly. Welsh languagelegislation requiresannual reporting onWelsh language skills.To collect thisinformation, they needto ask staff membersfor their profile details.Information will beheld confidentially byHR and nothing can bereleased which couldidentify any individual.During November,staff receivingpayslips through ISISwill be asked tocomplete the surveyon-line. Others willhave a copy posted tothem with a choice ofcompleting this or theon-line version. Noindividual questionhas to be completed,but the morecomprehensive theresponse, the betterthe evidence of howthe authority ismeeting itsresponsibilities.

"Hot desking" or "agileworking" or "smarter working"continues with SocialServices staff from Ty Eithinhaving moved to theGuildhall and other SocialServices staff due to berelocated to the Guildhall inFebruary next year.

Unison's response to thisissue can be found on thenational websiteunison.org.uk.

Meanwhile we suggest thefollowing if your team/sectionis proposed to change underthe "Smarter Working Policy":

talk to your steward andask them to raise the issuevia the normalconsultative procedure:

keep a diary logging thepotential issues (timewasting, examples of anyeffect on services, stresssymptoms, loss of peersupport and expertise);

talk to your team managerand put your concerns inwriting;

speak to staff in FacilitiesManagement and attend anymeetings organised by them;

share ideas of any spaceyou think could be freed up.

Hot-desking Personal protection in theworkplace

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