Industrial Action - Latest Information

Here is the latest information relating to the Industrial Action planned for Wednesday 30th November.

Please contact the Branch with any queries that are not covered below.

Which Trade Unions Have Balloted Over The Pensions Issue?

This is not just an issue UNISON has balloted on. Who are the others?

GMB; UNITE; ATL; NASUWT; NAHT; ASPECT; AEP; PCS; FDA (representing Civil Servants); PROSPECT; UCATT (strike ballot for members in local government, health authorities and the civil service); SIPTU; NUT; NAPO; RMT (transport union Tyne and Wear metro members, RMT Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Orkney Ferries members; POA (prison union members in secure hospitals).

Dealing With Exemptions & Emergency Cover

Regional Council has agreed that UNISON Regional Office should agree all exemptions and emergency cover on the day of industrial action. Each request for exemption or emergency cover will be dealt jointly by a Lay Leader (Sue Laws or Jenny Harvey) and a Regional Manager (Val Gibson or Franco Buonaguro).

Requests in the first instance should be directed to the Branch. The Branch has an exemptions and emergency cover form, which needs to be signed by the Branch Secretary before being sent to the Regional Office.

This process has been agreed to free up time for branches, provide protection for branches and take off the pressure from employers over these sensitive issues and to ensure consistency in emergency cover and exemptions across the region.

The general exemptions from industrial action are:

Employees currently in their last year of service with their employer, who are members of the pension scheme. However, those at risk of redundancy, but without a last day of service will not automatically be exempted.
Pregnant women who have notified their employer of the expected date of birth (unless there is a clear commitment from the employer that the member will not suffer detriment as a result of her taking strike action).
People whose state benefits may be affected if they take part in strike action. Those working under 16 hours a week may be entitled to income support. For members who are in receipt of tax credits, an employer can only stop paying tax credits when the period of absence due to strike action exceeds 10 consecutive days, which the employee should have been working. However the claimant must keep their benefits officer aware of their circumstances.
Regional Office has just agreed a further exemption for Staffordshire County Council. This relates to officers who would be called upon in the event of a major incident. This request for an exemption is not that they would be present in work on the day that requires multi-agency major incident support then the county would/may need to request colleagues to be available for duty if they are not in work already.

Please note: It is also expected that all those people granted an exemption will donate a day's pay to the Branch Strike Hardship Fund.

An exemption and emergency cover form can be downloaded here.

Emergency Cover

The general position on exemptions is that for a strike to be effective there should be as few exemptions as possible. However it is not the union’s intention to put vulnerable members of the public at risk.

It is the employer’s responsibility to provide appropriate emergency cover. This is usually established through assessing the risk.

If you are approached about making a decision on emergency cover in your workplace, please redirect any such requests in the first instance to the Branch Officer for your area.

Legal Protection For Those Taking Industrial Action

All employees are protected from dismissal during the first 12 weeks of any lawful, balloted, official industrial action. During these 12 weeks the protection is absolute. Any dismissal regardless of how long the employee has worked, or their age, is automatically unfair unless a tribunal decides the dismissal was not due to the industrial action.

Sick Leave & Pay

Workers who are absent on sick leave when a stoppage of work starts retain their right to statutory sick pay during the period of industrial action. If an employee reports sick on the day the action starts, the employer can be expected to make their own judgement on whether they should be regarded as on sick leave or on strike.

For the purposes of statutory sick pay payable in the eight weeks after a period of strike action, average earnings will reflect the lower earnings during the period leading up to the illness.

Annual Leave

UNISON does not regard anyone who takes annual leave on strike days to be participating in the strike action.

Employer Intimidation

Sometimes management circulates letters, documents or creates rumours in an attempt to throw doubt on the legitimacy of the action. Occasionally there could be an attempt to isolate or indeed intimidate individuals or small groups with the view to encouraging strike breaking.

Please make members aware of this type of pressure and advise them that in the first instance they should report such concerns to the Branch Officer for their area.

Remember: The more members on strike, the less likely this is to happen.

Branch Financial Hardship Fund

The Branch has established a Branch Hardship Fund Committee to deal with cases of extreme hardship.

Application forms will be available from the Branch Office for members to apply or can be downloaded here. In addition to filling in the details on the application form a copy of their salary slip showing the amount of the deduction will also be required.

March and Rally Details And Other Industrial Action Information

A poster providing the details of the March and Rally together with important information that members need to know will be going out to all the membership shortly.

A map of the march's route can be found here.

Please ensure members are aware that this information will be coming to them and to look out for it.

Pensions – Further Information – Please Click

It is important that we keep up the political pressure.

Please click here for a letter template you can use or adapt to send to your MP.

New Members

Members who have joined since the ballot are covered by the strike call and can take part in the action. Indeed we need to encourage them to join us.