Friday 6 May 2011

Council looks to slash staff terms and conditions

Northumberland County Council (NCC) has now instigated measures to impose an unagreed Job Evaluation/Single Status Scheme on all employees of NCC, including all those former District/Borough staff and all TUPED-in staff (e.g. Homes for Northumberland, Superclean, etc).
The Council has taken this approach before negotiations with the Joint Trade Unions (JTUs) in trying to reach a recommendable agreement to our members have concluded.
The JTUs believe we were very close to achieving a recommendable agreement and in April 2011 the JTUs put forward a proposed timeline that could have potentially seen implementation of JE/Single Status with agreement by 4 July 2011, following a ballot of our members.
The Council have chosen to ignore this timeline and will impose a scheme with more detriment than what was on the table on 19 April 2011. The Council’s timeline is going through to 1 January 2012, and the JTUs believe that in this given time frame we could have resolved most of the outstanding issues. There are potentially serious issues affecting groups of workers which will see them suffer considerable loss which the Council have not and will not now deal with. The JTUs were trying to mitigate through the negotiations the significant financial losses and major detriment to the affected staffs’ terms and conditions.
Post imposition of JE/Single Status, the JTUs believe that the only way to resolve the detriment our members will suffer is through the Employment Tribunal and law courts. This would result in a considerable cost to the Council and to the council tax payers of Northumberland at a time when we were very close to reaching an agreement.
Whilst the sham of negotiations with the JTUs continued at our weekly JE/Single Status meetings, behind our backs the Council was planning its route of imposition. This is a move that only the most vehement, anti-trade union organisation would attempt. It is the opinion of the JTUs that in the background the Council was producing a programme which includes sending out Section 188 notices to dismiss and re-engage staff on lesser terms and conditions, and detrimental Job Evaluation outcomes.
An example of this was an agreed job re-engineering/job enrichment process where the JTUs agreed to work with NCC to try and resolve detriments following the job evaluation process. This process was supposed to be concluded in February 2011. However, it is still not complete and NCC has in the main failed to honour their obligations on this matter. 

The JTUs are extremely disappointed and angry that the Council has paid lip-service to a nationally agreed process for the implementation jointly of an equality-proofed pay and grading scheme. The Council has not even waited until the JTUs’ National Office JE/Single Status Units have reported back on the Council’s proposals, in spite of the JTUs providing the reasonable and sensible timeline outlined above.
At this moment in time it looks like the chances are slim-to-none of reaching agreement and until the Council move back from their position of threatened imposition, the JTUs will be looking at all legal challenges at our disposal to protect our members’ interests and support them through this difficult time. This could include protective awards, challenging an unagreed JE/Single Status outcome that will be without the Equality proofed ‘checks’ and Equality Impact Assessments.
The JTUs have repeatedly asked for information with regard to the detriments staff could suffer under this process over the last six months to try and mitigate the losses and this Council with their lack of forthcoming information, have made it impossible to follow the joint agreed guidance of the NJC for LG Services (the Green Book). The JTUs are quite clear this position has been reached by a strategic decision of the Politicians, the Chief Executive, Senior Management Team (SMT) and lead officers of the Council. As far as the JTUs are aware, Northumberland County Council is the only Council in the North East that has taken this position. All other North East Councils have introduced JE/Single Status by working with the trade unions and adopting the National Scheme (the Green Book) - the JTUs therefore, regard Northumberland County Council as an anti-trade union Council whose words do not add up to their actions.
As result of the breakdown of today’s talks, the JTUs have made a formal request to meet with the Chief Executive, SMT and Senior Politicians on Thursday, 12 May, 2011, with the hope of moving away from the dangerous path Northumberland County Council are preparing to go down. The Joint Trade Unions still believe that a negotiated settlement is the best solution for all parties concerned. However, the Council have now prevented that position from being attainable with their current course of action and the JTUs will continue to endeavour to resolve our current problems as soon as possible.
It is the JTUs intention to hold consultation meetings with our members early in June 2011 to update you on this matter. More information will follow after the 12 May 2011.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Safe in their hands or their hands in our Safe

The NHS that we know and love is under threat. The government plans to re-shape the NHS as proposed in the Health Bill, which has the potential to damage patient care and waste vast sums of public money.

The plans will turn the NHS into a business where our taxes will increasingly pay for profit-driven companies to provide our healthcare.

We must ensure that the NHS continues to be a public service that gives us quality services that are local, easy to access and free when we need them.

What would the proposed Health Bill do

* Transfer the responsibility for the NHS from the Secretary of State (SoS) for Health to a new NHS Commissioning Board appointed by SoS.

* Abolish Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) responsible for planning services for a regin and overseeing PCT's.

* Abolish all 152 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), which receive money from the SHAs and buy services for their population.

* Create 300-600 groups of GP's called consortia which would take on the commissioning (purchasing) of services. A number of pathfinder groups, sometimes called 'pilots', were set up in January.

* Force all hospitals to become Foundation Trusts (FTs), encourage them to become employee-led social enterprises, and remove the cap on private patients.

* Increase the powers of Monitor (who oversees FTs) as sole economic regulator and enforce competition.

* Strengthen Care Quality Commission (CQC) to become effective regulator and license provider (with no extra money).

* Encourage 'any willing provider' who will be licensed by Monitor and CQC.

* Transfer Public Health to Local Authorities and set up a new body Public Health England.

* Set up Health and Wellbeing Boards - without powers to oversee GPC and without any community or professional representation.

What is a GP consortia?

The Government is planning on dissolving NHS Primary Care Trusts and establishing GP Consortia's across the country.

These new bodies will be reponsible for around £80 billion of public funds and will buy health services across communities in your area.

GP Consortia's will be free to buy in support from private companies to help them commission and put more local services into the private sector.

This government is using the crisis caused by the banks to introduce reforms that will lead to privatisation and services run for profit.

What you can do

* Northumberland MP's have signed up to the campaign although letters from constituents are still effective.

* Sign the petition at www.nhscampaign.org

* Tell your family and friends about the campaign

* Ask your Dr. questions, see a sample below

Questions to ask your GP

Are you going to be on the GP consortia and if so; why?

How will you carry out your job as a doctor and run the consortia without compromising patient care?

Would you let the local GP Consortia commission services through a private company?

How much will the GP consortia cost and is it cheaper than the NHS Primary Care Trust?

What training and education will be provided to GPs running the Consortia?

How will the Consortia be accountable to local people and elected councillors?

NHS - NOT FOR SALE

Monday 2 May 2011

Sharing Fire Services...Bad idea!

Northumberland County Council led by the Liberal Democrats are set to face heavy criticism from the Fire Brigade Union (FBU), UNISON and the general public should they press ahead with the merger of creating a single Fire and Rescue Authority with Cumbria County Council.

It was reported in the local newspaper The Journal, on 2 May 2011, that the council are to consider five options on how the two brigades could collaborate.

This comes on the back of the significant budget cuts Northumberland County Council have already made in other services.

Council bosses have been reported to say that front-line services will not be affected by any such change, however I believe logistically it could lead to all sorts of problems for the control centre staff often labelled back office workers.

My view is although the council say that significant savings can be made by the merger, I believe this could lead to the closure of many rural fire stations and depletion of an excellent life saving service. This merger would present major accountability issues as it is thought this merger would move away from the councils to create one single Fire Authority.

I believe moving to such a model would offer less financial security making the service and staff that work for the fire service more vulnerable and users more at risk.

Fire cuts cost lives, tell your councillor what you think of the proposals by contacting them through http://www.writetothem.com/

Sunday 1 May 2011

May Day Rally Condemns cuts

I attended the May Day Rally in Newcastle yesterday(30 April), which attracted some 600 people although this is an annual event it showed crowds supporting the rally, which demonstrated their anger against the governments spending cuts.

The march began at the Centre for Life in Newcastle, with the Trade Unions and Community organisations displaying their banners in a walk which ended in the city's Exhibition Park going through the City Centre stopping at the Monument.

At the Exhibition Park there was stalls, and some good speakers which included Ian Mearns, MP for Gateshead and Karen Reay, Northern Regional Secretary for UNITE.


My view is that we must continue these types of rallies in an effort to win our struggle against this governments agenda of cut, cut, cut. In order to do this we must educate, agitate and organise within our region, working together as trade unions, political parties, community organisations, faith groups and the general public to show our resistance and provide a real alternative to these savage cuts.