A copy of correspondence sent to all UNISON members within Enable Scotland is detailed below:
Pay 2010/11
You will be aware that members overwhelmingly supported a pay claim of 2.5% and the adoption of the Scottish Living Wage (£7.15 per hour) as a minimum for settlement on 1 October 2010. It has taken until well in to this year to get a response from management and which is on the blog below this post which we received from Peter Scott. Although dated 31 March it was only received on 7th April, the delay in writing to you has been due to other developments in Enable and elsewhere which I will touch on below.
As you will see the response to our claim by Enable is to offer no pay increase at all. This is the second year running Enable propose to freeze your pay and as things stand there is little prospect of them making any offer on 1 October 2011. In October 2010 RPI inflation was 4.5%, it is currently sitting at 5.3% (March 2011). Inflation measures are based on averages, in many cases as our members are low paid and more of your money goes on fuel and food inflation for you and your family is likely higher than this.
There is no doubt the times are tough and organisations like Enable are having their funding slashed, ultimately at the behest of the ConDem government. That said it is the lowest paid that pay freezes impact on the most and there is a sense that the burden is not being shared fairly. Enable has said little about the cuts and in Glasgow rather than challenging the swingeing cuts coming in under personalisation have taken to advertising on Smooth Radio.
UNISON is spearheading opposition to the cuts in all their guises in all sorts of ways, and day by day it is becoming clearer more and more people are opposing the government. To find out more on all this please do visit our websites http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/ ; www.unison.org.uk/million ; http://www.thereisabetterway.org/ and most importantly for Enable UNISON news follow us at http://unison-enablescotland.blogspot.com/ . Everyday more and more people are joining UNISON, including in Enable.
There is a tension though between peoples’ anger at the pay freezes and widespread concern over job security. There are no easy answers and that is why we need to take a snap shot of your views now. Enclosed with this form is a consultation exercise that allows you the chance to speak your mind on the pay situation, please take a minute or two to let us know your views.
We will take up Enable’s offer of further talks on the Living Wage but won’t rob Peter to pay Paul.
Please remember if you haven’t already done so to sign our online pay petition at: www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/unisoninenable !
Glasgow Personalisation
UNISON supports personalisation; letting people have more say over the services they need. We oppose the term being abused to mask massive cuts. On 28th April hundreds of workers, service users and carers including many from Enable rallied in Glasgow’s George Square to oppose Glasgow City Council’s cuts which have seen some care packages cut by over 70%. The links that have been made between workers, carers and service users will help us take this campaign forward and help us build similar alliances elsewhere in Scotland.
We are waiting to hear from Enable how they respond to the cuts, they hope to pick up new business and say that due to the number of vacancies they are running with they hope to avoid redundancies. We will be in touch with Glasgow members as soon as we hear from them.
We have raised our concerns about the inadequate training available to staff and the suspension of supervision. We have been given assurances this will be addressed and will be watching this space.
Enable have also advised us that they intend to close their Kinning Park offices and intend to move the services in to the Head Office building, which is not wheel chair accessible. We have raised concerns about this and parking etc (not everyone has dedicated parking spaces!) and will ensure consultation takes places before any move is finalised.
Argyll & Bute
Management have indicated that that due to losses in this contract they intend to make some swingeing cuts to some staff’s pay, especially those who transferred in from Richmond Fellowship Scotland. We have indicated that we believe this will be a breach of TUPE. Once Enable publish their proposals we will arrange consultation with members affected.
Employment Services
We are representing members faced with redundancy in Employment Services and have expressed concern about a proposal to reintroduce a bonus system for a small number of staff. Performance related pay has been proven to fail and doesn’t work in the voluntary sector, what little money there is for pay should be used for the benefit of all.
Scottish Community Conference – Glasgow, Saturday 14th May
It’s is not too late to get registered for our conference for community and voluntary sector workers. Please contact your branch if you are interested in coming.
It’s not all doom and gloom …
Our membership is growing and more people are expressing an interest in becoming active in UNISON. Opposition to the cuts is growing and alliances are being built on a daily basis. It doesn’t have to be like this and people from Venezuela to Egypt are showing this. Keep in touch with your stewards, get involved and use the blog: unison-enablescotland.blogspot.com . Together we can make things better!
