Wokingham UNISON

 PRESS RELEASE – Wokingham Borough Council to Reduce the Head Count by 100 in the Next 12 Months

Embargo: Immediate Release (July 27^th,  2010)

The Coalition Government’s in year cuts to local government grants and the emergency budget means that Wokingham Borough Council needs to achieve an additional £1.2 m savings this financial year.

Last week, Susan Law, the Council’s Chief Executive gave a high level briefing to employees on how Wokingham is proposing to make these savings. Proposals include accelerating the Transformation Project with savings being achieved by a massive job cut of 100 posts within 12 months as well as eroding employees’ terms and conditions of employment.

In response, Paul Bee Wokingham UNISON’s Branch Secretary has this to say:

The staff briefings have left employees angry and anxious about their future, service delivery and how these cuts will inevitably impact on the local economy. We are not surprised that Susan Law has some tough decisions to make as a result of the unnecessary but intentional and ideologically fuelled attacks by the Coalition Government on the public sector. It seems from the current proposals on the table that it is Wokingham Borough employees who, already facing a two year pay freeze and are struggling to survive financially because of increased energy, fuel and food costs, are expected to take the most pain and bear the brunt of cutting the deficit created by the Banks.

Low paid workers, who already face pay freezes and job cuts, will now also see their services and household income cut.

UNISON are currently looking at staff’s suggestions about how savings can be made that meets Wokingham’s need to reduce costs by £1.2m. We will be seeking a dialogue over the Council’s finances, as we believe that savings can be achieved without deleting 100 posts and eroding our terms and conditions of employment.

ENDS

Paul Bee

UNISON Branch Secretary

Mobile: 07533615663

UNISON, the UK’s leading public sector trade union, today called on MPs to spare a thought for workers on term-time only contracts, the unemployed, and people worried about losing their jobs, through the summer recess, starting tomorrow (Tuesday 27 July).

The union warned that many workers cannot afford the basics, let alone a summer holiday this year, and will miss out on the chance to spend time with their families, recharge their batteries and deal with the fall out of a stressful year.

Even without going on holiday, many parents will struggle to cope with the additional cost of childcare, day trips and holiday activities for children when they are not at school. A recent survey* put the overall spend by families through the summer at £5.6 billion – or more than £300 per family.

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said: “While MPs leave parliament for the summer recess, they should spare a thought for cash-strapped workers and the unemployed, priced out of a holiday this year.

“Many workers, including teaching assistants on term-time only contracts, miss out on pay in the summer months. This makes it near on impossible to afford a break. Reports that 600,000 public sector jobs are facing the axe mean that many people still in work will be too worried about joining the dole queues to go on holiday.

“Even without going away, the cost of the school holidays can mount up for parents. It is a huge blow that recent cut-backs have seen the end of free swimming – one of the only enjoyable activities available to low-income families.

“Parents feel huge pressure to give their children a decent break. Our worry is that low-income families will get into debt, and many parents will be forced to go without to make ends meet.

“It all adds up to a stressful summer for parents and children. Missing out on the chance for rest and relaxation will have a huge knock on effect to stress levels for the rest of the year and beyond.”

Plans to boost local councillors’ allowances by 2.3% were condemned as “a disgrace” today (14 July) by UNISON, the UK’s largest public service union.

The Local Government Association (LGA), who is recommending the increase, is also calling for councillors to get paid a daily rate of £152.77 to attend LGA meetings.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON’s Head of Local Government, said:

“This expenses hike is a disgrace. What a slap in the face for hard working council staff, who have not been offered a single penny pay increase this year.

“Rising inflation, coupled with a pay freeze, is effectively a pay cut for workers already struggling to pay their bills and keep a roof over their heads. In contrast to civil servants and other public sector workers, local government employers are refusing to give staff paid under £21,000, including nursery workers, home carers, housing workers, leisure and parks staff, school meals and cleaners, the £250 pay rise promised in the emergency budget. Where is the justice in that?

“Councillors should be holding the town halls to account and making sure taxpayers get good value for money. Those taxpayers would be right to ask why councillors are enjoying hikes in expenses, while workers and communities are left out in the cold? Across the country council workers face massive job losses and communities are losing vital services they rely on.

“For the LGA to publish two sets of guidelines on the same day – one suggesting that councillors get a rise and another condemning workers to a pay freeze – is shocking.”

Dear Colleague,

Following Susan Law’s email yesterday outlining the probable impact of the in year cuts to funding and the emergency budget it is important to let you know what our position is.

Although we do not have any details as yet, UNISON recognises that the impact of the in year cuts will have a significant impact on jobs and service delivery. The need to make £1.2m savings in 8 months through accelerating the Transformation Programme may have devastating implications for Wokingham Borough Council and the local community if not managed sensitively. We are looking for any fundamental changes to be skilfully handled with a scalpel rather than a bludgeoning axe. This will obviously involve a meaningful exchange of views and a dialogue with UNISON and for us to be involved in the decision-making meetings. Transformation without staff engagement will not succeed.

We are keen to work closely in partnership with Susan Law and her team as we fully understand that the need for such changes is due to a national political agenda which is clearly attacking front line services. We realise that there will be times that we will have to agree to disagree, but for the record, UNISON is totally against any pay cut, compulsory redundancies and outsourcing to the private sector. We also believe that in-house service provision is the best means to ensure a vibrant and sustainable local economy and democratic accountability. It is well known for example, that for each £1 invested in public services through pay and procurement that an additional 64 pence is invested in the local economy. It is clear too that what is essential is to protect front line services and to protect the vulnerable. Again our position is that in-house service provision is the best means to achieve this objective as we in the public sector will not put profit above care.

Over the next two to three weeks, UNISON will be setting up a series of meetings so that we can listen to your views, concerns and put questions to Susan Law and her team. In the mean time I am happy to attend any meetings either on an individual basis or as a team. This can either be at your workplace, Shute End or an alternative venue.

We very much understanding that this is an extremely difficult and anxious time for all of us. We believe that it is only through engagement and where possible working together that we can prevent the emergency budget and local government grant cuts from causing lasting damage to the Council and the people we serve.

I can assure you that there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes. We are now engaged in discussions with all of the other Berkshire UNISON Branches as well as with the other trade unions, i.e., GMB, NUT and other teaching trade unions in Wokingham with regards to holding joint campaigns so that we can raise the profile of how essential public services are, and how without them this will inevitably have a devastating impact both on the local economy and community.

We in UNISON will keep you up to date with what we are doing on a weekly basis now.

Best Wishes,

Paul

P.S. For the record, with regards to the salary protection issue, I can assure you that no one in UNISON agreed to the changes to salary protection. UNISON was party to a discussion prior to the announced changes. However, we merely acknowledged that was the Council’s position at this information sharing meeting.

Paul Bee

UNISON Branch Secretary

UNISON Branch Health & Safety Officer

Tel: 0118 9746747/0118 9746964

email: paul.bee@wokingham.gov.uk

          unison@wokingham.gov.uk

Embargo: For Immediate Release June 24^th, 2010

WARNING OVER IMPACT ON LOCAL ECONOMIES

The budget is devastating news for all those who work for Wokingham Borough Council and indeed for local government throughout Berkshire. Freezing council tax is regressive and will blow a hole in local authority budgets. The announcement of a two year pay freeze for all public sector workers earning over £21,000 is essentially a pay cut especially with the RPI inflation rate at around 5%. With increases in taxation and VAT, this will make it even harder for employees and their families to survive in this harsh economic climate.

Paul Bee, the UNISON Wokingham District Branch Secretary states that:

We recognise the need for savings to be made. However, reductions in government grants, freezing council tax, and forcing a two year pay freeze on public sector workers may well have major implications for jobs and how that could impact on the local economy. Job cuts and forcing workers to survive on less money means that they will have less money to spend in local shops, hair dressers and restaurants. It is well known that for every £1 invested in local government via pay and procurement, means that an additional 64 pence is invested in the local economy. Many local businesses, too, rely on contracts from the public sector for their livelihoods. Without this vital cash injection, local economies throughout Berkshire may well be devastated.

UNISON does have alternative budget proposals which would help make similar savings but would be much fairer than the government’s budget. Our recommendations are:

£4.7bn could be raised every year by introducing a 50% tax rate on incomes over £100,000

£10bn could be raised every year by reforming tax havens and residence rules to reduce tax avoidance by corporations and ‘non-domiciled’ residents

£14.9bn could be raised every year by using minimum tax rates to stop reliefs being used disproportionately subsidise incomes over £100,000

£30bn could be raised every year by introducing a Major Financial Transactions Tax on UK financial institutions – the Robin Hood Tax

At least £1.5bn could be raised this year by bringing back the windfall tax on bankers’ bonuses.

£4bn could be saved this year by cancelling Trident, the project could cost as much as £100bn.

£500m could be saved every year by eradicating healthcare acquired infections from the NHS – the extra cleaners would cost half this.

£495m could be saved every year by adopting measures to improve the health and well-being of NHS staff, thereby reducing sickness absence

£1bn could be saved every year by halving the local government agency bill, as has been achieved by high performing councils

£5bn could be raised every year with an Empty Property Tax on vacant dwellings. This only exaggerates housing shortages and harms neighbourhoods.

£2.8bn could be saved every year by ending the central government use of private consultants who bring little discernable benefit

£3bn could be saved in user fees and interest charges every year if PFI schemes were replaced with conventional public procurement

Total – 77.895bn.

Here in Wokingham we are keen to work closely in partnership with the Council to look at ways of containing the possible fall-out from this attack, and ensure that where cuts need to be made this is done without undermining service-delivery especially to the vulnerable.
ENDS

Paul Bee

UNISON Branch Secretary

UNISON Branch Health & Safety Officer

Tel: 0118 9746747/0118 9746964

email: paul.bee@wokingham.gov.uk

          unison@wokingham.gov.uk

PRESS RELEASE – Local Government Employers Association Reject Budget Promise to Low Paid Public Sector Workers

 Embargo: Immediate Release (July 1^st, 2010)

 In the emergency budget, the Chancellor announced a two-year pay freeze for public sector workers from 2011-2012. However, maybe in recognition of how poorly paid we are in the public sector and how worse off the majority of us will be in the new world of Con-Dem Britain, he also said that those earning less than £21,000 per year would receive an extra £250 per year.

Unfortunately, true to form and yet again showing how little the Local Government Employers think of us, they have made it clear to UNISON that they will not pay a single penny extra and that the pay freeze stands unchanged.

Paul Bee, Wokingham UNISON Branch Secretary has the following to say:

The National Employers’ Organisation for Local Government Services refusal to implement the £250 increase agreed in Budget by their political masters to the lowest paid is ridiculous as well as being shameful. Who is running the country and the economy? Is it the Coalition Government or the Local Government employers? Is the employers’ side going to be allowed to show this disregard to public sector workers and the Government, or are they going to be forced to reconsider their arrogant position, with those responsible held to account?

We will be lobbying our local councillors who we hope will encourage the employers’ association to review their current stance.

ENDS

Paul Bee

UNISON Branch Secretary

Mobile: 07533615663

Research commissioned by UNISON, the UK’s leading public sector trade union, and the TUC shows how hard the new government’s emergency budget will hit low income families.

By taking into account what services households lose, along with changes in taxes and benefits, the report finds that the impact of the emergency budget will be deeply regressive. All households stand to take a hit, but the poorest will suffer the biggest blow.

Assuming the planned cuts fall evenly across non-ring fenced departments, the average annual cut in public spending on the poorest tenth of households is £1,344, equivalent to 20.5% of their household income. In contrast, the average annual cut in public spending on the richest tenth of households is £1,135, equivalent to just 1.6% of their household income.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

“It doesn’t matter how much the Tory and Lib Dems try to spin the emergency budget, we are not all in this together. The truth is that the poorest, the least able to lose money from their household budgets, will be hardest hit by the coalition’s cuts. Meanwhile, the wealthy, and the Bankers who got us into this mess, get away lightly.

“The government is running the risk of a lost decade of decline, by pressing ahead with plans that will hit the spending power of hardworking families. Throwing hundreds of thousands of public sector workers on the dole queues will cripple local economies, closing down local shops and businesses. And if vital public services are cut to the bone, people will be left without the support they need to pick up the pieces.”

Read the full report here:

http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B5131.pdf

Responding to the Prime Minister’s invitation to public sector workers to suggest ways of cutting out waste in the public sector, UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said:

“Of course UNISON members will co-operate in any exercise that helps cut out waste and delivers value for money for the taxpayer. They have been co-operating with the Gershon reviews for the past three years and have delivered efficiency savings of 6%.

“But the Prime Minister is misleading the country by claiming that you can shave a massive 25% off budgets just by cutting “waste”. The efficiency savings made over the past three years have cut out most of the waste – there is very little fat left to cut.

“There is no escaping the fact that a 25% cut will inevitably strike deep into the heart of the vital services that we all rely on. But it will hit the poorest and the most vulnerable the most.

“I would urge the Government to revisit these impossible cuts and consider what devastation they will cause to our society and our local communities.”

UNISON, the union representing 850,000 local government workers, today hit back at local government employers who are refusing low paid staff, including nursery workers, home carers, housing workers, leisure and parks staff, school meals and cleaning, the £250 pay rise promised in this week’s budget.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government, said:

“It is a disgrace that the local government employers are refusing to give even the lowest paid workers a rise this year. The workforce is overwhelmingly female, and overwhelmingly low paid. 200,000 earn less than £12,500 year, three quarters earn less than £21,000. This cold hearted decision brings real misery for hundreds and thousands of families struggling to cope with inflation running at 5% plus – and that’s before the increase in VAT hits home.

“Most councils budgeted for a pay increase this year, and for the next two years. There is money available to pay staff a rise, but not the political will. How can councils expect staff to help them deal with the harshest budget for decades when staff are so obviously not valued.”

UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector union, today (24 June) accused the Government of piling more misery onto workers, with its plan to raise the state pension age for men to 66 by 2016.

Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON, said:

“The Government seem hard wired into attacking the most vulnerable in society. Workers who have to rely on their state pension to make ends meet, will have no option but to carry on going for another year – whatever the cost to their health – but the better off will be able to retire earlier. One rule for the rich, another for the poor.

“It may be a choice for the fit and healthy to keep on going for another year at work, but for some, work takes a terrible toll on their health.

“Many workers across the public and private sector do very physically demanding jobs where carrying on until 66 is not a safe or practical option.

“You cannot expect paramedics to carry patients down flights of stairs or out from under cars into their late sixties. The same pressures fall on nurses, street cleaners, gardeners, home care workers, cooks, road diggers, engineers and cleaners not to mention the mental stress of working in very pressured environments like social work, in schools and universities.

“This lack of joined up thinking will pile more misery on workers, as well as increasing the long-term costs to our NHS.”