UNISON Scotland inUNISON Voice@Work

newsletter for unison scotland's community & voluntary sector members

Spring 2011 Vol2 No 2

FIGHT THE CUTS
Join the demo in London Saturday 26 March. Transport is available from across Scotland contact your local UNISON branch for further details and to book a place. Further information can be found on UNISON Scotland’s website or telephone Lorraine Bartlett on 0141 342 2841

UNISON ERSKINE: a major contributor to a new national service group
Michael Betan is the Senior Steward for the major Scottish charity, Erskine Homes. Michael has just been elected as Convenor of Community stewards in the NHS Glasgow, Clyde & Voluntary sector branch. Here we print a copy of an article from Erskine’s staff magazine. ......more..>

Citizens Advice Direct recognition request
Following an increase in membership, UNISON had written to Citizens Advice Direct (CAD) seeking a voluntary recognition agreement In December 2010.. more...>

Employee Counselling Service staff vote Yes
We are pleased to announce that following a succesful ballot of staff within the Employee Counselling Service (ECS), UNISON will be granted recognition for bargaining purposes within ECS....more...>

EDITORIAL
At the time of writing, local authorities throughout Scotland are setting their budgets for the year ahead. For workers in the community and voluntary sector, the expected huge cuts in funding for organisations in the sector mean the misery of job losses, pay cuts, and regressive terms and conditions. ......... more...>

UNISON letter to Third Force News: At a time when a broad, cross sector campaign against the coalition’s ideologically inspired spending cuts is required, it is disappointing to hear the Chief Executive of SCVO, Martin Sime, call for the Scottish Government to ‘stop protecting’ the jobs of public sector workers delivering vital public services...more...>

Community service group report to Scottish Council
Scottish Council is the UNISON body that brings together UNISON activists from all sections of the union in Scotland to discuss policy and plan for the future. At each meeting a report is circulated outlining our work in the Community service group. Below we publish the latest one. . . . . more...>

Personalisation speech to CCPS Conference
Here we reproduce a speech given by Simon Macfarlane, UNISON Regional Organiser, on Personalisation to Community Care Providers Scotland (CCPS) Conference on 25th November 2010 (as part of a debate on whether workers had been dealt a full hand or no hand by personalisation). ......more...>

Mungo Foundation cuts!
Housing Support Services in The Mungo Foundation (TMF) have received two hits in the last few months to their terms and conditions of employment. In the first one, because of the funding cuts being implemented by Glasgow city council, TMF asked staff to VOLUNTEER for a cut in hours or redundancy.......more...>

UNISON on the internet
UNISON has a number of websites and blogs dedicated to members in various employers across the Community and Housing sectors. Below we list a selection of the sites where you can access information. ..more...>

UNISON Scotland Community Conference
The second Community conference will be held on Saturday 14th May. This will be an opportunity to meet up with fellow members working in the Community & Housing sectors.... more...>

Default retirement age comes to an end
The Coalition Government has announced that the default retirement age will be abolished from 1st October 2011. The phasing out will begin in April 2011. ..... more...>

ECONOMIC BACKGROUND
Below we print a snapshot of the economic background taken from UNISON’s monthly Bargaining brief.
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Voice @ Work
is published by UNISON Scotland Community Service Group Committee 14 West Campbell Street Glasgow G2 6RX ( 0141 332 0006 issue no. 2 vol.2 Spring 2011 Deadline for news this issue: 16th February 2010 The views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of the UNISON Scottish Community Service Group Committee.