Adult Social Care and Health | Children & Young People | Communities | Corporate Services | Fire & Rescue | Further Education | Private & Voluntary Sector
UNISON is Britain's largest trade union, representing workers in public services, the voluntary sector, and privatised service industries. Nottinghamshire County UNISON Branch represents over 10,000 members employed by:
* Nottinghamshire County Council
* Further Education Colleges in Nottinghamshire
* Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service
* Ex-County Council privatised services
* OFSTED
* National charities in Notts
* The Voluntary Sector (including private residential homes and Day Nurseries)
* Organisations whose funding is derived from local authorities.
The Branch office is in West Bridgford near County Hall. You can contact us at the address above. location map
MAIN HEADLINES - UPDATE 27th August 10
Budget News and Council News
Removal of Car Allowances
Apparently managers are currently drawing up lists of people who are essential and authorised car users, so that they can get the £450 or £150 lump sum. Make sure you check your contract as you may well be an authorised casual car user allowance. (Some members may not have had to use their car whilst in post but it may actually be part of your contract). PLEASE CHECK your car user status, and, if appropriate, ensure that your manager includes you on the lists.
UNISON letter to Chief Executive about the Financial Situation
UNISON have written to the Chief Executive, Mick Burrows, following the recent press reports and Council statements regarding various aspects of the Councils financial situation. This makes very interesting reading. Download here (888k)Campaign against Redundancies
As you are aware the County Council announced on 11 August they would make at least 2,500 staff redundant over the next 2/3 years, with two thirds of the job losses over the next 18 months!These proposals are totally unjust and we are of the opinion they are politically driven and have been made with the deliberate aim of reducing the workforce before privatisation of the remnants of Council Services. These redundancies come on top of the huge attacks on our terms and conditions in recent months. We believe that the Council is using the excuse of a financial blackhole as a means to further its own political agenda.
Council staff will now be receiving a letter from the Chief Executive dated 16th August asking you if you wish to express an interest in taking voluntary redundancy. I have to tell you that UNISON’s position is to oppose any form of redundancy as once the job has gone it will not be brought back. Our view is that the redundancies are unnecessary and are purely for political ends and not in the best interests of the services that we all provide.................. See full letter on 'latest news' page
UNISON position relating to redundancies
Outrage at cost of new post at Notts County Council
Notts County UNISON understands that the New Improvement Director (who will essentially oversee the programme of swinging cuts and privatisation that Notts County Council are intent on implementing), who commences in post on 1st September, will receive a market factor supplement of £17,500 in addition to the £92,575 that the post has been graded at.
We deplore such largesse for Senior officers at the council at a time when the majority of staff, who are paid very much less are facing a period of pay freeze and slashing of their terms and conditions at best, and redundancy at worst.
This new post comes only days after the council announced there would be some 2,500 redundancies over the next 18 months or so. UNISON believes the salary for this new post is a disgrace and shows total insensitivity on the part of Notts County Council, particularly in light of a tranche of budget constraints announced only last week, included amongst which was that all honorariums and additional payments would cease forthwith. This seems to be a case of one law for those at the top and another for the majority of us.
UNISON shall be campaigning vigorously against the creation of this post and the salary attached to it.
Martin Sleath, Notts UNISON Joint Branch Secretary.Disgust at Mass Redundancies
Nottinghamshire County Council announced today that it would make 2,500 staff redundant over the next three years, with 2/3 of these job losses set to happen within the next 18 months. We believe the Council is using the excuse of a financial blackhole as a means to further its political agenda at the expense of a dedicated workforce. Full Branch press release available here
Link to report on National UNISON website
Link to Nottm Evening Post
Link to BBCNCC Budget Control Measures
This morning (Monday 9th Aug) the NCC Intranet has a small front page notice re Budget control, however upon looking further this leads to other pages that outline some very severe budgetary measures that are now being imposed without consultation. We have responded immediately to the Authority and requested an urgent meeting to seek clarification on many of the issues raised in the notice. A copy of the branch letter can be seen here.
Many of the measures need detailed clarification of what exactly they mean and how they will be administered and quite frankly why many of them are being introduced when the Council has a substantial under spend in every Department and reserves of £95 million plus - this remains a serious question. What we are looking at is further pressure to run down services and staff before eventual privatisation. Basically at the heart of this Administration is a policy of privatisation irrespective of the damage it will cause to the local community.
The budget control measures come at a time when the Council actually has more than £95 million pounds in Reserves and every Department has an underspend amounting to another £3 million. The District Auditors have said "your current financial health is sound with a county fund balance of just under £25 million and adequate reserves set aside to meet known liabilities." Additonal detailed financial info is available here
COUNTY COUNCIL CUTS – THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE!
If you listen to Tory Councillors and senior Council managers, you may well be thinking by now that there is no alternative to massive job losses and wholesale privatisation across the public sector. This is simply not true.
The cuts we face are a matter of choice not necessity and both the Government and Notts Councillors could make different choices if they wanted to.
Nationally, the Government has decided to continue to support the banks, without even insisting they adopt policies that benefit ordinary people. At the same time, they are intending to raise VAT, which affects poorer people rather than richer ones, instead of putting up Income Tax for those “earning” more than three times the national average wage of about £25,000 a year, people who can well afford to make a fairer contribution to the national economy. Then there’s the strange obsession with pouring (our) money down the drain in Afghanistan, where British soldiers kill and are killed for absolutely no visible benefit to anyone, least of all the Afghans. In addition, millions are to be wasted on new private (Academy) schools at public expense and billions on replacing Trident nuclear weapons, which will be of no use whatsoever against Al Qaida (or anyone else, for that matter).
Locally, the Thatcherite Councillors are determined to finish Notts off completely, having already wrecked our industry and closed our pits. Even though the County Council is the biggest employer by far and incredibly important to the local economy, thousands of jobs are planned to go and thousands more are at risk through privatisation and the attacks on pay and conditions that always brings. Even profitable and potentially profitable services are at risk. Why? Because this is about ideology, not money.
Since being elected in 2009, the Tories have pumped millions of pounds into Council reserves rather than into services and are refusing to raise Council Tax, even by an average of 50p a week: the services and facilities that will go as a result are worth far more than that to ordinary people, though perhaps not to rich – sometimes very rich – Councillors. And of course, the more people that are made redundant, the more is paid out in redundancy money, benefits and pensions – it’s just economic illiteracy.
Unison says to County Councillors: Don’t cut jobs and services.Work with us locally to improve efficiency and nationally on a campaign uniting ALL Councils – red, yellow and blue – against this Government’s spending priorities. We don’t want crocodile tears, we want action and some sign of a genuine commitment to local services and the public sector in general. If you can’t even show that, why on earth did you stand for election in the first place?See UNISON's presentation on the June Budget