The Edinburgh World Justice Festival is hosting a variety of interesting events across the city from 30 September to 16 October.
Check out the programme on their website. Events cover topics such as equality, refugees in Scotland, Grenfell, the global arms trade and Palestine.
Unite members will be along to a few events, so comment below if you’re going and would like to meet up.
Graeme Smith, branch webmaster and one of our Equalities Officers, asks for your views on the new branch website.
We launched the new branch website back in June. The new site aspires to be
For any of this to work, we need to know what you expect from your branch website and whether we’re on the right track.
Tell us your views in this short survey to help us make the site you want to use. It’s ten questions and shouldn’t take more than five minutes to complete.
The proposed COSLA pay offer has now been agreed. The agreed offer, for most workers, is the same one put forward by COSLA in May:
Craft workers will get a £350 increase and a 1% increase on their contractual payments. Continue reading “COSLA pay offer agreed”
Who speaks for the workers? is a recent podcast from BBC Radio 4 that examines the challenges facing workers in the 21st century.
It looks at the gig economy, faux ‘self employed’ staff and precarious work and discusses how trade unions can help – and how they must adapt to face modern times.
The People’s Assembly Against Austerity are hosting a series of events to coincide with the Tory party conference in Manchester on Saturday 30 September 2017, including a national demonstration on 1 October. Read about the events on the People’s Assembly site.
If you are interested in going along, let us know by speaking to your rep or commenting below. Unite Scotland sent a contigent along to the recent anti-austerity demo in London, so it would be great to gauge interest in going down to the Manchester events.
The past few years alone in Edinburgh have seen thousands of public sector jobs lost, services for communities and our most vulnerable cut, wages stagnate and outsourcing and privatisation put key services into the hands of profiteering companies.
Join us in Manchester and tell the Tories ‘no more cuts, no more austerity, no more attacks on workers’ rights or standard of living’.
We have identified a number of people across the council who are considered first aiders but don’t receive additional payment for these duties. If you are currently considered a work place first aider CEC branch would appreciate you completing this survey so we can progress this.
For further information contact amanda.cunningham@unitetheunion.org
Download the FM newsletter (PDF)
The FM (janitorial) review is approximately two weeks old and already it is creating a considerable amount of stress and confusion amongst those affected. The discomfort amongst members is palpable and ranges from worrying issues related to pay to serious concerns over health, safety and security.
Branch officials have been hearing and relaying these issues to the review board and representing members’ interests, both individually and collectively, to get the best result from this review.
Unite City of Edinburgh Council branch is member-led and member-run; branch officials can advise and negotiate on behalf of members, based on decisions taken both individually and collectively by members.
The proposal to change grade 3 SSOs (janitors) into Grade 4 Facilities Technicians may initially seem benevolent. However, it doesn’t take much to figure out that the loss of working time payments and the lack of clarity on overtime mean that a pay cut is on the cards for most of those who work hard to maintain our schools, community centres and other facilities. This is largely due to the new start time of 7pm, the removal of split shifts and the internal squabble between FM and C&F over who should pay for janitorial support during out of hours and weekend working.
Some Unite members have told us that they stand to lose several thousand pounds and would be unable to accept these conditions unless something is changed. Others have raised the question of some form of pay protection or pay transition in connection to the potential loss of allowances and overtime. Branch negotiators will be taking these points, and any others raised by members, into the negotiations during the consultation period.
All workers whose jobs are under review are being asked to complete a preference form, during 1:1 with their line manager. This form provides guidance for managers in the complicated task of allocating staff to the various proposed new roles. Where a worker expresses a first preference for the location they already work in and there are no significant changes (e.g. in total weekly allocation of janitorial hours) then the preference should be honoured.
Many members have expressed concerns that they are being compelled to accept a reduction in hours or to “take someone else’s job” or will be moved to a different location. That these concerns are being raised by members demonstrates a clear failure of communication between senior FM management, local area management and workers on the ground. These concerns have been raised in consultation meetings (both in the general review meetings and in negotiations) and will be again.
There have been multiple issues raised regarding the effect on the service. Some key points are
Another very significant effect on service came to light recently as a result of the Lifelong Learning review. This review removed the Head of Establishment role from CLD workers, in Community Centres, effectively meaning that there is no-one in overall charge in the event of an emergency. This issue has been raised as a matter of great urgency with both review boards.
Both Unite and Unison branches had a presence at each of the review start meetings and we held discussions with members after management and HR had left.
During these discussions we heard members’ issues and explained the process of putting these points across to management during the consultation period (a 3-pronged approach involving 1:1’s with line manager, email to the review address and copy to branch negotiators, for issues to be raised in weekly negotiating meetings).
We will do the same during the mid-point meetings and follow this up with 2 or 3 joint union meetings where members should decide any course of action in order to seek appropriate solutions to the multitude of issues being raised.
