Edinburgh College job evaluation update

Following on from our previous briefings about the Edinburgh College Job Evaluation process and outcomes we are in a position to give our members an update from the recent discussions with your management. New briefing covers updated job descriptions, pay protection, legal position at http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/edinburghcollege/

Care home briefing on 12 hour rotas

Care Home management have issued 90 day notices in respect of the service-wide implementation of 12 hour rotas. This follows on from the completion of the ‘pilot’ scheme run at Drumbrae Care Home from May 2013 until July 2014.
   UNISON is setting up a range of workplace meetings. We need to hear your views and whether to proceed to a consultative ballot. See full details and get a copy of the briefing on the website here http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/socialwork/carehomes.html

URGENT - NORMAL PAY FOR HOLIDAY CLAIMS

The following letter is going out to all members working for the City of Edinburgh Council. Please read carefully. You MAY have a claim:

"As we have previously informed you, on 22 May 2014, UNISON member Joe Lock was successful in his claim, Lock v British Gas. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that a worker’s annual leave pay should include commission payments if these were part of normal pay. The Employment Tribunal will decide how UK law will now be interpreted in light of this decision. It is likely that whatever decision is reached by the Employment Tribunal will be appealed through the higher courts, so it may be a long time before any payments are received.

New Edinburgh College job evaluation briefing out now

A new briefing is out on the new Edinburgh College pages on the branch website http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/edinburghcollege/ . See also a briefing on legal issues affecting job evaluation at http://www.unison-edinburgh.org.uk/edinburghcollege/jobevaluationec.html.

Gaza: 'We march for three things. The children, the children, the children.'

#Gaza Edinburgh’s Princes Street came to a halt again this week when marchers stopped and sat for two minutes silence to remember the dead in Gaza. Even onlookers respected the silence and applauded as the demonstrators set off again for Bute House, the official residence of the First Minister of Scotland.(From the UNISONActive blog)

On the 90 minute march, people carried a card, each with the name of one of the 2,000 Palestinians, almost 400 of them children, killed by Israeli forces. It was a poignant and powerful way of highlighting the human cost.

The demands were straightforward: An immediate end to the killing, Israel to lift the siege and to abide by UN resolutions. An end to arms sales to Israel and boycott, divestment and sanctions to bring pressure on the Israeli government. A free Palestine.

Job evaluation members' briefings Edinburgh College

Members' briefings on job evaluation will be held in Edinburgh College from Monday 11 August 2014 (see in college for details). UNISON has produced a briefing (click here) which is going out today 8 August.

UNISON urges Edinburgh council to keep local people’s say over care services

UNISON will urge Edinburgh council to stick to its joint plan with the NHS for integrating health and social care services at today’s Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee (Tuesday 5 August 2014 10am City Chambers).

The union says the ‘body corporate’ plan is the best way to ensure local people keep their local say over services, while ensuring fully joined up working with the NHS.

At this late stage, with only seven months to implementation, the union expects moves to ditch the joint project in favour of passing everything across to the NHS. This is despite two years of joint planning by the council and the NHS, along with the unions, to build a jointly led integrated service.

UNISON officer Kirsten Hey, who works as an Occupational Therapist, will warn councillors that any change to plans at this stage would “cause extreme disruption to the integration process”.

She will warn that transferring everything to the NHS would create legal problems for the council like its duty to provide Mental Health Officers, confusion about the legal role of the Chief Social Work Officer when the people she is responsible for are working for another agency, and the host of problems that will come in terms of continuity of service, pay, conditions, pensions and professional accountability. 

The union will quote evidence from Northern Ireland and New Zealand that single budget, medical led services end up with resources being diverted away from local community supports.

Kirsten Hey will say: “We feel strongly that it is in everybody’s interests for integration to work well. A joint board model is the best way to achieve integrated services leading to better outcomes for the people of Edinburgh.

“It will retain council control of social care services, with all the democratic accountability that goes along with that. It will retain the council’s credibility in the eyes of the public who voted for you to run our services, not transfer them elsewhere.

“That means local people keep their local say over services, while ensuring they benefit from fully joined up working with the NHS.

“And even more importantly than all of those things, it will enable the integration process to proceed without interruption so that we can all get on with what we want and need to do – improving health and social care services for the people of this city.”