Budget: Government declares war on public services

22/06/2010


UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, today accused the Government of declaring war on public services and public service workers with the most draconian budget in decades.

He said: “This budget signals that the battle for Britain’s public services has begun with the Government declaring war. Public sector workers will be shocked and angry that they are the innocent victims of job cuts and pay freezes.

“Freezing public sector pay when inflation is running at 5.1% and VAT is going up, will mean a real cut in living standards for millions of ordinary workers and their families - already struggling to pay rising bills.

“Nurses, social workers, midwives, paramedics, police community support officers, housing and environmental officers who provide vital public services, are amongst those who will be hit hardest by the two year pay freeze. And for local government workers this comes on top of this year’s freeze.

“A 25% cut in departmental public spending will decimate our public services. The budget will do nothing to restore confidence or kick-start the recovery, but will push local economies into the ground, raising the spectre of breadline Britain.

“They haven’t even bothered to consider any other option but slash and burn. What of the bankers who caused the recession and the super-rich who evade tax? They must be breathing a sigh of relief that they got away so lightly. The bank tax levy is a poor substitute for a serious ‘Robin Hood” tax on financial transactions. It is a missed opportunity to raise £30bn which would have made a significant dent in the country’s deficit.

“Throwing tens of thousands of public sector workers on the dole will cost the country billions in lost tax revenue as well as piling billions onto the benefits bill.

“The Chancellor dreams of a private sector recovery but how can that be on the back of brutal cuts to public services workers. Local businesses, shops, hairdressers, restaurants will go to the wall as spending dries up. No amount of fiscal stimulus will do any good if they have no customers

“Vital services that the poor, the sick and the vulnerable rely on, are in the firing line. There is no compassion in this coalition.

“Freezing council tax is a useless gesture saving people pennies but cutting tens of millions from council budgets, trhreatening jobs, losing services and undermining the local economy.

“Raising VAT affects the poor the most as they spend a higher proportion of their meagre incomes on goods and services.

“Meanwhile major utility companies spend money sponsoring sporting events whilst attacking pay and conditions – that cannot be fair.”

Adding 500,000 public service workers to the dole between now and 2015 – which the CIPD says would be the likely effect of Osborne’s spending plans – will cost around £10 billion in lost tax and increased benefit payments. This would almost entirely cancel out the reduction in the pay bill, as well as dealing a massive blow to local economies and communities.

UNISON’s Save Our Services alternative budget:

£4.7bn could be raised every year by introducing a 50% tax rate on incomes over £100,000

£10bn could be raised every year by reforming tax havens and residence rules to reduce tax avoidance by corporations and ‘non-domiciled’ residents

£14.9bn could be raised every year by using minimum tax rates to stop reliefs being used disproportionately subsidise incomes over £100,000

£30bn could be raised every year by introducing a Major Financial Transactions Tax on UK financial institutions – the Robin Hood Tax

At least £1.5bn could be raised this year by bringing back the windfall tax on bankers’ bonuses.

£4bn could be saved this year by cancelling Trident, the project could cost as much as £100bn.

£500m could be saved every year by eradicating healthcare acquired infections from the NHS – the extra cleaners would cost half this.

£495m could be saved every year by adopting measures to improve the health and well-being of NHS staff, thereby reducing sickness absence

£1bn could be saved every year by halving the local government agency bill, as has been achieved by high performing councils

£5bn could be raised every year with an Empty Property Tax on vacant dwellings. This only exaggerates housing shortages and harms neighbourhoods.

£2.8bn could be saved every year by ending the central government use of private consultants who bring little discernable benefit

£3bn could be saved in user fees and interest charges every year if PFI schemes were replaced with conventional public procurement

Total – 77.895bn.

Joint Consultative Committee 10th June 2010

STAFFING LEVELS & CONTINUED USE OF AGENCY STAFF The point was raised that despite TMF implementing efficiancy savings,agency staff are still being used to quite a high degree.TMF said they are still having problems recruiting and retaining staff but it has been passed on to Managers that there is a protocol to follow when filling shifts :p/t,f/t,relief staff to be offered before going to agency.

DISCIPLINARY&GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES
It was raised by UNISON that that Managers were sometime not following procedures, TMF said they will be carrying out training with their Managers.

ANNUAL LEAVE/AUTHORISATION
There have been instances where staff have been told by their Manager that they can carry over annual leave in to the next leave year above the 38hrs referred to in the staff handbook when they have beeen unable to take it due to sickness or other reasons only to be told by HR that they will lose it, UNISON asked who has the authority to grant this,TMF said it should go through Service Manager.Lorraine Eivers has asked UNISON to gather any information on staff who are in this situation. So please get in touch with your steward if you are affected.

STUDY TIME/SVQ3&4
TMF will now have their own assessors, there will be induction and study/workshop days set up at Clyde St, Frank Doherty is working on this at present.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS
UNISON have asked for these as it would help Stewards in their role when advising members. TMF said they are almost ready to go out.

PAY CLAIM
Simon Macfarlane, Regional Organiser submitted the pay claim today, saying that the ballot had returned 90% in agreement with 2.5%, this will be taken to the Board meeting on 28/6/10.

REDUNDANCIES AT RED TOWER PROJECT
UNISON expressed it extreme concern about the recently announced closure of Red Tower with 30 redundancies. TMF advised they had been called in at short notice by Health Board and Glasgow City Council to be told funding was being pulled, prior to this they had been working on a remodelled service. UNISON asked for and received contact information for officers in Council and Health Board who had made decision so as the issue could be raised with them. UNISON pressed TMF to do everything they could to minimise compulsory redundancies and to find suitable vacancies for staff.

Any Other Business
New project for Dementia at Bankhall St will be handed over to TMF in August, start-up and funding has still to be agreed.

Rosewood Project will not close now until September with some staff moving to Elderslie Project and some trasferring to Health Board

These are the issues that were discussed at the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) on 10th June 2010.

Alice Lyness, Convenor

Defend Glasgow Services - Oppose Tory/Lib Dem cuts! 12.15pm - 22nd June 2010

The newly elected Tory/ Lib dem coalition is wasting no time in announcing attacks on public sector spending and its our jobs and the vital services that we provide that are due for the axe!


This financial crisis is not of our making and is the biggest con trick for years – use public money to bail out the banks then bankers and politicians announce that the public sector must pay with cuts in jobs and services.

We reject the government and media campaign that places the blame for the crisis at the door of public sector workers/ public sector services.

We reject the idea ‘private good/ public bad’.

We need a united campaign of service providers and service users to fight cuts described as “worse than during Thatcher’s time”.

Get organised. Come to the lunch time demonstration

Join our All Glasgow Campaign!

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Defend Glasgow Services Campaign
The DGS campaign unites public sector trades unions, public services workers and community organisations. Glasgow City Council and its Arms Length Organisations intend to make significant cuts to services over the next three years. Grants to community organisations are also being slashed. The citizens of Glasgow should not be asked to pay for the bail out of the banks and the mistakes of greedy bankers.

Campaign co-ordinated by UNISON Glasgow Branch

Tel 0141.552.7069

Pay claim 2010

UNISON members within The Mungo Foundation were issued with a consultative ballot last month on our submission of a pay award from 1st April 2010. The ballot closed yesterday (Wednesday 8th June 2010) and we can can confirm a 90% vote in favour of the claim.

The claim was for:
a straightforward claim for an increase of 2.5% on all salary scales and the introduction of a minimum pay rate of £7 per hour in line with the Scottish Living Wage Campaign, this campaign is being backed by a number of organisations including church groups.

Your stewards appreciate the claim does not meet current inflation rates and are also aware that you did not receive a cost of living rise last year. However, after detailed discussion we have structured a claim which we believe is realistic in the current financial circumstances. We believe that for the Mungo Foundation not to reach swift agreement on our claim will be wholly unreasonable.

Other negotiations
In recent months your stewards have been meeting with TMF management on a regular basis to pursue a number of issues, progress has not been as swift as we would like but we hope in the coming months a number of positive outcomes will be reported to you.

Non Pay Benefits – child care vouchers, bike to work and Glasgow Club (the Council leisure club in Glasgow) discounts and benefits are now available. UNSION fully appreciates these will only be of benefit to some staff and they are in no way a substitute for decent pay, however they are important benefits that we have secured.
 
Rota’s – when we surveyed members last year it was clear there was huge variations in rota practices and staff satisfaction with these. We have been working with management to negotiate a best practice guide and hope it will be agreed and issued soon.


Sleepover facilities – we are seeking a minimum standard to be agreed in terms of clean fresh linen, storage, security, washing, tea/coffee, TV faculties etc that all staff should be able to expect when spending a night away from home. We have also called on a number of sleepover rooms to be revamped. If you believe yours needs revamped speak to your project manager about your ideas and contact us if matters are not resolved. We hope the minimum standards will be issued very soon.

Sleepover pay and terms – you will see as part of the pay claim we are looking for a sleepover rate of £33 for all sleepovers up to 8 and half hours. We do not believe sleepovers should be any longer than this except in exceptional circumstances and have been discussing reducing those that are wherever possible. Where there remain any sleepovers over 8 and a half hours we believe the additional hours should be paid at the hourly rate. UNISON maintains its positions that all sleepovers should be paid at the National Minimum Wage rate but this is unlikely at the current time.

We would also remind you that you cannot be compelled to work more than 48 hours a week including sleepovers on average unless you want to.

We have also given management proposals on how to handle disturbances and toil during sleepovers and will keep you updated on their response.

UNISON response to David Cameron's speech

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, responding to David Cameron’s speech today on the economy, said: “This was a chilling attack on the public sector, public sector workers, the poor, to the sick and the vulnerable and a warning that their way of life will change. There was nothing in this speech that told the rich, the banking and financial sector or the city speculators that their privileged way of life will change.


“With breathtaking gall, David Cameron is spinning a myth about a hard-done-by private sector. The Tories and their friends in big business seem to forget the tens of billions of pounds of profit made by the private sector out of public sector contracts.

“And Cameron is trying to fool the public into believing that cutting public spending, quickly and deeply, has nothing to do with political priorities or decisions. I don’t think people will be fooled.

“It is a complete nonsense to claim that you can cut tens of billions of pounds from public spending and still protect ‘front-line’ services. And throwing public sector workers on the dole does not make sense – that will have a drastic impact on local economies. For every £1 a public sector worker earns, nearly 70p is spent in local shops, cafes, hairdressers and businesses.

“Of course we have to manage the deficit, but there are other ways of reducing it and that includes making those who caused the crisis pay a bit more, and by tackling tax avoidance and evasion.

“Cutting deeply and quickly risks plunging the country back into recession – public services are too precious to be turned into a political football.”