March 2015 newsletter

Inside

UN ANTI-RACISM DAY:

no to racism & fascism

Medicines & School Staff ...or are we?

City and County of Swansea

Review An end to 'casualisation'?

During recent discussions UNISON has discovered that there are more than 230 agency staff working for the authority. It is UNISON’s aim to vastly reduce these numbers.

As part of the recent consultation process UNISON requested figures for the numbers of agency workers currently working for the authority and we were shocked at the huge numbers particularly within the Waste department and Social Services.

states that ‘in principle the employment of agency workers should only be used for short term cover’. However UNISON has discovered that there are individuals

should first identify if there are any suitable staff on the Council’s redeployment list who could carry out the job. Or if the task is going to take 12 weeks or more, consider recruiting externally.

Discipline

The policy also states that the council needs to keep a complete record of the numbers of agency staff employed. Failure to do 230 s taff in this is a disciplinary & So Was offence, yet no central casu cial Services te on records were kept and no al co n t ra c one person knew the total ts numbers. This has been an issue within the No mortgage authority for many years and has been discussed Some council managers prefer a casual and insecure workforce There are currently at numerous meetings at 150 agency staff several levels. UNISON working in Waste with an additional 48 working within the Waste Department, has spoken to officers repeatedly to working in Social Services. UNISON is of employed through an agency for request that this matter be discussed and the view that this is unacceptable and we extremely long periods, in some cases for resolved. are applying pressure on managers and nearly 7 years.

Casualisation Councillors to reduce this number.

Permanent The slow progress points to the Employing people in this manner has a advantages of 'casualisation' for detrimental effect upon them and The policy also states that ‘the use of an managers who create their own little UNISON is campaigning for this practice agency worker must be the most fiefdoms contrary to council policy. Staff to stop. Staff employed through an appropriate course of action’. UNISON can be effectively 'hired and fired' at will, agency do not have access to the LG does not believe that employing people have no means to plan their future and Pension scheme, neither are they entitled through an agency for work that needs to are a means of undermining permanent to sick pay. Despite working in the Council be carried out indefinitely (e.g. kerbside staff. for several years they are unable to use waste collections) should be carried out this income to obtain a mortgage. by someone working for an agency. UNISON recently met with officers and Conversely we believe this should be councillors offering to work with them to The authority has an Agency Workers done by someone on a permanent find solutions to reduce the vast numbers Policy which advises that agency workers contract with the authority. Furthermore of agency workers in the authority. The should only be used in exceptional the policy suggests that before a manager next meeting takes place on the 23rd March. ♦ circumstances and for short periods. It considers using an agency worker they

Public Service Not Private Profit

March 2015

Save Care Now IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF ON

ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICINES UNISON believes that the City and County of Swansea did not take the administration of medicines by school support staff into account when deciding on what pay they earn. Therefore, we think teaching assistants and other staff carrying out this responsibility are not being paid properly.

Survey In a survey carried out in 2012 by UNISON and the RCN nearly one in three respondents said they did not feel competent or comfortable with the responsibility of administering medicine or providing health care support to pupils.

18% of school support staff say that they felt forced into taking on these duties by their employer. Their desire not to ‘let pupils down’ means they are taking on tasks that leave them feeling worried and vulnerable – and potentially with little or no training.

No recognition School support staff working for City and County of Swansea do not receive remuneration for this additional work nor any recognition of the skills needed to provide health care support to pupils.

Years of cuts to local authority funding and pressure on school budgets have impacted on pupil support across the UK with training and support for school staff being slashed. Insufficient staffing and heavy workloads mean that school support staff are being asked to take on more and more responsibilities for little or no recognition or reward.

Ballot We are intending to run a consultative ballot to find out the strength of feeling of school support staff on this issue. At this point we will not be asking anyone to lose pay over this issue but we are calling upon members in schools to support taking action short of strike action.

This would mean that you stop administering medicines in your school. We believe this would have a huge impact and demonstrate just how much you do and how much of a difference you make in the development of the children and young people of Swansea.

Demonstrate Please could you raise awareness of this issue in your school and let others know about it. If you know of anyone wishing to join the union they should contact the branch office or the organiser below. Also, remind them to look out for their ballot paper which is due to come out early April and to vote to support this campaign.

If you wish to discuss this or want some further information please contact Helen Huelin, Area Organiser on 07957 505756 or e-mail h.huelin@unison.co.uk

Our homecare system is in crisis. It is causing avoidable

Care worker

suffering for people who need care, the families of people who need care, and homecare workers. 500,000 adults in the UK rely on homecare workers to get them out of bed, wash them, help take their medication and much more.

Councils are allowing care providers to cut corners and the elderly and disabled people that need homecare are not getting the support they should.

Many care wo people they v

Save Care Now is a UNISON campaign to raise the voices of homecare workers and improve the homecare sector.

Elderly and disabled people rely on care

“

Care workers are there every day for people who are elderly, disabled, have mental health problems or who have had an accident or health problem and have been in hospital.

The problem is that councils have for years been outsourcing care services to private providers who are cutting corners. And vulnerable people who need care are losing out.

Too many homecare visits are short, rushed and undignified

Care worker

Care workers nurses, suppo moments. Ye

I have seen many good workers leave frustrated a poor pay and the way zer hours contracts are used way of punishment and reward. If you turn down a shift, hours you were depending on can be take and given to others, sometimes with only hour notice. I have seen how m use this as a way to simp force out staff who may ha complained about quality care. Is this acceptable? D of care means that we ha raise concerns, yet many too scared of the implicati financially if they do.

Councils are increasingly using 15minute visits. It is hard – and sometimes impossible – to provide care in this short time. People are not washed adequately, the sandwich for their lunch isn’t made, there’s no chance for a cup of tea and a chat. They’re left hungry, Anonymous private frustrated, lonely. In practice care homecare worker workers often stay, unpaid, to finish their tasks, but this means they are then late for their next visit, which affects the next person People deem who needs their support. ‘substantial’ o with tasks like not.

There is no continuity of care If you had to have someone give you a bath, you’d prefer to meet him or her first wouldn’t you?

Many vulnerable people see a succession of strangers come into their lives and care for them intimately. This happens for two reasons. The first is that many care providers are cutting corners and simply don’t take the time to make sure people have regular carers. The second is that pay and conditions for care workers are so bad that the sector has extremely high turnover – according to a government report 30% of staff leave each year. The widespread use of zero hours contracts for homecare workers makes this situation even worse, and it is especially damaging for the growing number of people suffering from dementia who receive homecare.

Signing up to way for counc people they a that councils m protect the dig the workers w The most like is before they provider, but c to implement contracts with http://www.sa http://www.sa

Swansea Council is not a Living Wage Employer...

by Ron Job, Senior Steward, Gower College

And neither are 21 out of 22 local

rs' concerns are not listened to

orkers say that their concerns about the visit aren’t acted upon by care providers.

rs are not given enough training

s carry out many tasks that are similar to orting people at their most vulnerable t many homecare workers feel they are not adequately trained to carry out a lot of the tasks expected of them, and that this is detrimental to the people they care for.

at the ro by

a

en

rs’ many ly ave of Duty ave to are ions

Song and dance

authorities in Wales!

Care workers are not paid fairly The UK’s own National Audit Office has reported that 220,000 care workers are routinely being illegally paid below the national minimum wage. This happens because they are often not paid for travel time (which there is a lot of between visits) and many have to pay for their own required uniforms and training.

This pushes homecare workers into poverty and forces many to leave their jobs, which means many skilled and experienced workers are leaving the profession.

Last year an aspiring Labour politician sent me a link to the GMB website in an attempt to prove that City and County of Swansea is a Living Wage employer.

Failed The story on the site, which was over a year old, uncritically repeated claims by the then Labour leader that Swansea's Labour councillors had agreed to pay the Living Wage.

What it failed to mention was that, by the time that most of the lowest paid workers received it, the level the Council were paying was already out-of-date 20p less an hour than the Living Wage Foundation said workers needed to get by on at the time.

Cuts

Many people are being denied care entirely

Because of cut backs many people have had their care cut, and no longer receive any visits at all. A report by Age UK showed that 500,000 of the 1 million over-65s who struggle to wash do not receive any help, and 1 in 5 of the 240,000 who need help taking medication do not receive any help. ed to have ‘moderate’ rather than or above needs, people who used to get help e washing and making their food, now do

UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter is a simple cils to improve homecare for the vulnerable are responsible for. It is a set of commitments make which fix minimum standards that will gnity and quality of life for those people and who care for them. ely time for councils to sign up to the charter y renew a contract with a home-care councils are able to sign up at any point, and the changes when they renew their h home-care providers. avecarenow.org.uk avecarenow.org.uk/ethical-care-charter/

I decided to double-check just in case, with uncharacteristic modesty, councillors had decided to increase the wages of their poorest workers without making a song and dance about it. On the Living Wage Foundation website (http:// www.livingwage.org.uk) you can get lists of Living Wage employers in each region.

There are 39 in Wales and only one of them is a local authority. It isn't City and County of Swansea. Labour leads half the local authorities in Wales and yet 21 out of 22 are paying poverty wages! No wonder nearly a quarter of workers in Wales earn less than the Living Wage. £10 an hour Even the Living Wage, although it would represent an increase for tens of thousands of Welsh workers, isn't enough. The GMB at last year's TUC seconded the motion moved by the Bakers' Union, BFAWU, that the TUC demand the minimum wage be raised to £10 an hour.

It also failed to mention that the This 1913 poster, designed by suffragist activist Catherine Courtauld, refers to payment of a the oppressive situation of women "living wage" (at employed as ‘sweated labour’. less than the Living Wage rate!) was Ian Hodson, President partially paid for by cuts to other of the Bakers' Union has recently stated payments to council workers and charging that anything less than £10 leaves low them for the privilege of going to work, for paid workers needing their wages to be example through car parking charges. topped up by means-tested benefits in These cuts left some workers facing a order to get by. This is state subsidising of 10% drop in wages and when some employers who pay poverty wages. protested they were told to ‘sign (new contracts) or be sacked’!

No exceptions Worse This got worse. The Council also made it crystal clear that this was a one-off and that there was no commitment to increase council workers' pay in line with the Living Wage. This was reinforced when then council cabinet financial spokesman, now Council Leader, Rob Stewart, moved last year's cuts budget. In the papers accompanying the budget, it stated plainly that the Council is not committed to becoming a Living Wage employer and has not budgeted for the increase in the Living Wage that has just taken place.

Since this article was first researched last Autumn, little seems to have changed. £10 an hour was overwhelmingly carried at the TUC, which should be immediately implemented. After all, if the minimum wage had kept pace with bosses' skyrocketing pay, the minimum wage would be worth £19/hour now. All trade unions should support demands for £10 now, with no exceptions on age or other grounds.

Bakers Union (BFAWU) animation on why we need £10/hour http://bit.ly/1DEgEs8

March Against Racism & Fascism

Assemble 11.30am, Clare Gardens, Clare Street, Riverside.

March followed by rally at City Hall.

Far right and fascist organisations are

gaining support across Europe including in Britain. Arguments wrongly blaming immigrants for the fall in standard of living, economic problems and austerity have provided the cutting edge of support for the far right, fascism and racism.

Cardiff, March 21st

Anti-Semitic attacks have also coincided with the growth in support for fascism.

Black African and Caribbean communities continue to experience racism and hatred as seen with the killing of Michael Brown in the USA.

Migrants are welcome Once again many organisations have come together to reject racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism; to celebrate diversity and show that migrants are welcome.

UN Anti-Racism Day Islamophobia and anti-Semitism

YOUR UNION

Across the globe the promotion of fear and hatred of Muslims and Islam is continuing, creating a climate of Islamophobia.

This is directly leading to violent attacks on Muslim people and mosques, and other communities such as Sikhs and Hindus who are wrongly identified by racists as Muslim.

Contact us:

Following the success of last year’s event, another international day of action has been called coinciding with UN AntiRacism Day. UN Anti-Racism Day commemorates the victims of the Sharpeville massacre in Apartheid South Africa.

We are demonstrating our confidence in a future free of scapegoating, racism and hatred; and to remember Nelson Mandela and cherish the ideal of a free and democratic society in which all persons live together in harmony and equal opportunities.

Unison Office, Rm 153-G, The Guildhall, Swansea 01792 635271

unison@swansea.gov.uk

Branch Secretary: Mike Davies / Asst. Secretary: Andrea Thomas Unison has over 100 trained union reps throughout the council, schools and FE colleges. We will advise, support and represent you collectively and individually on issues from sickness, disciplinaries to legal matters inside and outside the workplace. If you need advice or representation please contact the Senior Steward(s) for your department below or go to your workplace steward. Alternatively please contact the branch office.

Social Services Alison O'Kane - 07856 641234 Alison Davies - 07941 757853 Martin Chapman - 01792 635271 Education Pat Lopez - 07557 560097 Mark Otten - 07789 485009 Eve Morse - 07532 232873 (after 3.30 pm) Chris Bell - 07967 551025

Sports & Social website: www.suss.me.uk

Regeneration/Housing John Llewellyn - 07557 560093 Roger Owen - 07847 942458 Gower College Ron Job - 07963 454041 Resources Rhydian Prismick - 01792 635803 Housing Sallyanne Taylor - 07825 401711

www.unison.co.uk

This newsletter is produced by the City and County of Swansea Unison Branch. Any letters, comments or suggestions for articles should be posted to the branch address or emailed to Unison@swansea.gov.uk. Correspondence is not guaranteed to be published and contents may not necessarily reflect Unison policy.