PAY! Health ballots as Local Government consults

by Chris Bartter

HEALTH: Members power to make choice:

UNISON is to ballot half a million health workers on whether they want to accept or reject a multi year pay offer, following negotiations with the UK government. The Health Service Group conference in Manchester last week backed the ballot call by Health Executive Chair, Scotland's Lilian Macer, for members to get "the information and power to make this important choice". The offer is worth 2.75%, 2.54% and 2.5% over three years, though a number of clauses mean around 60% of members will benefit by more than those amounts.

The conference recognised that the offer is complex and meets a number of union aims decided by previous conference policy, including:

• weighting towards lower paid
• increasing the NHS minimum wage to £6.77 an hour - above UNISON's £6.75 minimum wage target - in 2009 and £6.98 in 2010 for an increase of 15% over three years;
• removing of the lowest pay point, a step towards merging bands 1 & 2 of the pay scale;
• reducing the number of incremental pay points in band 5, plus additional money for the 25% of staff at the top of band 5 who get no incremental rise;
• a clause allowing the figures for years 2 and 3 to be revisited via evidence to the NHS Pay Review Body if economic circumstances warrant it;
• commitments to talks on reducing the number of pay points in other long pay bands and negotiations on UNISON's claim for a progressive reduction;

However, conference also recognised that it does not meet union policy calling for a 'substantial' pay rise above Retail Price Index inflation, currently 3.8% (March 2008). Conference voted to give "all members working in health and affected by this pay proposal" the say on whether to accept or reject it. UNISONScotland had previously welcomed the commitment of the Cabinet Secretary for Health to fund the proposed multi-year deal for NHS staff in Scotland.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT 'pig in a poke' rejected

Make sure your voice is heard as local government branches consult members in the coming month on the employers' final three year pay offer. All three unions - UNISON, the GMB and Unite (T&G) - have rejected the offer from CoSLA and are consulting around 130,000 members in Scotland.

The CoSLA offer given in early March, spanned three years, proposing rises of 2.5% in 2008, 2.5% in 2009 and a further 2.5% in 2010. UNISON branches have now been circulated asking them to call on members to reject the employers' offer. They are being told that substantial industrial action will be needed to be successful in this fight.

Last November, the unions submitted a pay claim looking for a rise of £1,000 or 5% in 2008. Trade union side secretary Dougie Black of UNISON Scotland said: "All three trade unions have rejected the employers offer. There is a great deal of anger at the employers' insistence on a three year deal and their continuing refusal to agree a reopener clause linked to inflation.

"The offer is already less than inflation, and without a re-opener clause our members are being asked to buy a pig in a poke", he added.

Another factor that angers unions is the refusal of the employers to include an element of weighting to address the problems of the lower paid. Dougie Black said "The offer doesn't approach the current rate of inflation, let alone begin to catch up the loss staff have suffered over recent years and it skews the pay scales, increasing the gap between higher and lower paid - for our lowest paid workers the increase after 3 years is around 50p! This is effectively a pay cut. "

Stephanie Herd, Chair of the UNISON Scottish Local Government Service Group said: "Councillors should be aware that our members are serious about this offer being unacceptable. CoSLA have said they want to make 'efficiency savings so they can reinvest in services.

"One of those investments should be in the workforce that delivers these services. If you want first class public services, if you want the sick and elderly cared for, your children well-educated and protected and your streets clean and safe, cutting the pay of public sector workers is the wrong way to go about it."

The unions have also submitted pay claims for local government workers elsewhere in the UK calling for a similar rise. Both have as a key element, increases to provide low paid members with a living wage. (Flat rate claims of £1,000 per year (in Scotland) or 50p an hour (elsewhere).

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