Dear GMB Post holder, In the coming months – partly thanks to high profile GMB campaigns against bad employers such as Uber and ASOS – Members of Parliament are going to hold an investigation into the future of work and workers’ rights. We want to make sure MPs know exactly what is happening in the real world – that means getting real experiences from you and your members in front of their committee. We’ve set up a short survey to help collect responses, experiences and ideas, which you can find here: www.gmb.org.uk/makeitwork. If you have 5 minutes to complete the survey, and to forward it to anyone in your branch who might be interested, your responses will help make sure that politicians get a clear picture of what is happening around the country, and what they should do about it. The deadline for submission to GMB is December 12th. Best wishes, Tim Roache
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]]>The GMB has opposed the government approach but they remain of the view that it is would be appropriate to “reform” (i.e. reduce) exit payment arrangements across the public sector.
Attached is a summary of the government’s framework of changes here:
Reforms to Public Sector Exit Payments
You can read also the full text on GOV.UK:
]]>You can access the full document from the following link:
GMB@Local Gov – Bulletin August 01
A copy of the letter to the National Join Council advising of the goals of the review is also available:
]]>* Business and Administration
* Cleaning Principles
* Common Health Conditions
* Equality and Diversity
* Information, Advice or Guidance
* Lean Organisation Management Techniques
* Mental Health Awareness
* Nutrition and Health
* Prevention and Control of Infection
* Principles of Dementia Care
* Principles of Working with Individuals with Learning Disabilities
* Team Leading Knowledge
* Understanding Autism
* Understanding Dignity and Safeguarding in Adult Health and Social Care
* Understanding the Care and Management of Diabetes
* Understanding the Safe Handling of Medicines
The 90 minute IAG session is for those people who would want to enrol onto a course and is NOT an open session for those just wanting to find out more. The purpose of the session is to provide an introduction to Learning Curve Group, allocation of learning materials and explanation of the process of distance learning and support. Please note that a fee of £125 is payable if learners decide to withdraw from the course and do not complete their assessments.
In addition, can all staff wishing to enrol in any of the above distance learning courses please contact Jen Lynas Tel: 01228 510137 /jennifer.Lynas@cumbria.gov.uk to ensure all learners have chosen which course that they would like to do at least two weeks prior the induction date. All courses are available to complete online or in book format over an 8-10 week period.
The session will be held on Monday 16th May 2016 at 17:00 (finishing no later than 18:30) at:-
Carlisle day Services
Carlton Day Centre
Carlton Road
Carlisle
Cumbria
CA13DP
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GMB members, in a full secret postal ballot, voted by 9-1 on an above average turnout to accept the deal. Unison and Unite, following branch consultations, have both rejected the deal, in Unison’s case by 3-2 on a low turnout. This was discussed at a joint trade unions meeting today and a common position could not be reached.
GMB is clear. Our members voted clearly to accept the two-year deal and to get it into pay packets as soon as possible. (Over 2 years the deal is worth 2.4% on the paybill – a 1% increase for most people in 2016 and again in 2017 and between 2.41% and 10% for the lowest paid).
What Unison and Unite seem to be saying is that they would now be prepared instead to accept half the two-year deal, ie the first year of it only. For GMB, we cannot and will not go against the wishes of you our members, whatever other unions might want us to do. But the result is a trade union stalemate.
What will happen next is Unison and Unite will break ranks and offer the Employers half the two-year deal. As far as GMB knows there is no membership mandate for them to do this and there is no guarantee that the employers will respond positively.
The real issue is that in the meantime everyone’s pay rise is being delayed and some very good increases for the lowest paid are sitting in the Employers’ pocket rather than our members’.
I’m sorry to report such a confused state of affairs. There may be further news with some more meetings planned in early April and I will inform you about those.
Best wishes
Justin Bowden
National Officer – Public Services Section
In addition, the council has said that its current financial predictions show they will have to make a further £80million of savings between 2016/17 and 2018/19 to balance their budget each year.
The council released their ‘Securing your future’ (Public Consultation on draft Council Plan and budget) in Autumn 2015. Elements within the publicly available Plan describe how the council will balance their budget. Reshaping the council, changing how the council manages public money and savings from implementing policy decisions are all factors that go towards reducing the council’s budget.
Reshaping the council includes reducing costs by reviewing and reorganising how the council works and reducing discretionary activity. It also includes a commitment by the council to make savings from a reduction in management and staff costs – commonly referenced by the council as ‘reshaping’. The council is consulting on reshaping the council in 2016/17 to the tune of a further £5.6million.
A similar reshaping exercise took place in 2015/16. As part of council’s reshaping agenda there is a statutory element placed on the council to consult with the recognised Trade Unions. The manner in which the council engages with the Trade Unions is through formal meetings – often referred to as HR1 meetings. When the reshaping of a service area is determined by the council, as part of their wider austerity programme, GMB will enter into more detailed consultation based meetings with the respective Assistant Director. Subsequently, we will attend the employer/staff meetings during what is often referred to as the Engagement and VR Window. GMB will always try to attend any meeting where the council is proposing a restructure of a service area, reduction in staff hours or any voluntary/compulsory redundancy situations.
Before the end of the consultation period, GMB will provide a written reply to the council on their proposed reshaping/restructuring of each service area. The GMB reply can be quite broad in its content or specific where the need arises. Key issues, for example, during the 2015/16 restructuring have been around the council’s Assimilation and Vacancy Preference Process. Where GMB disagree with the council in certain policy areas, we can articulate this within our consultation replies. However, within the context of consultation there is no obligation placed on the council to accept GMB observations or other recommendations put forward other Trade Unions. In some situations, post consultation, we may enter into further specific dialogue with the council to try and resolve a specific issue.
Before each service review/reshaping takes place, the respective Assistant Director (AD) will release a ‘Statement of Change’ document. This sets out the aim of the reshaping exercise but also includes additional information of those employees in scope, how to engage and timescales etc. As each of the Statement of Change consultation windows comes to an end, your GMB Branch Convenors will reply to each AD in return.
As service reviews continue across the Council, GMB will continue to advocate for mitigation factors in an effort to minimise and reduce any likelihood of compulsory redundancies with the following being considered:
The GMB replies for 2015-16 are shown below:
1. Environment & Community Services (Environment & Regulatory Services)
3. Environment & Community Services (Community Services)
4. Chief Executive’s (Corporate Governance – Performance & Risk)
5. Chief Executive’s (Finance)
6. Environment & Community Services (Contract and Technical & Asset Management)
7. Environment & Community Services (People Management)
8. Children’s Services (Children’s Social Care)
9. Children’s Services (Senior Management Team)
10. Children’s Services (Learning Improvement)
Please read the leaflet below for more information.
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