It’s been another busy year for Plymouth in UNISON at Livewell. There has been no time for “partying” unlike in some London offices and residences.
Our members continue to work hard supporting the national roll out of the Covid vaccine, going above and beyond to support colleagues and to care for the population of Plymouth. However, we recognise that the sustained pressures of the Pandemic, coupled with the last ten years of austerity cuts has had a profound impact on our workforce.
Supporting members
Plymouth in UNISON have supported members in several ways this year, both individually and as a Collective. Locally, we continue to raise members concerns in various forums such as Joint Committee for Consultation and Negotiation , Health & Safety and Wellbeing Strategy. Devon-wide, we attend the Integrated Care Service partnership meetings, also attended by HR Directors, the Care Commissioning Group and the Chief Nursing Officer. At regional level, we attend the UNISON Health Service Group and the NHS Social Partnership forums and nationally, we raise concerns with UNISON national leads, so they can express our views at the NHS Staff Council attended by NHS Employers and Social Partnership forums, chaired by Government Ministers.
We continue to work closely with Luke Pollard, MP for Sutton and Devonport and would like to thank him for his ongoing support, as he continues to raise our concerns in Parliament. We endeavour to engage with all our local MPs, but with limited success. However, we were pleased that one such MP, was persuaded to ‘Tweet’ favourably about UNISON, after receiving his vaccination from our very own Karen Owens, Branch Chair.
National Pay Campaign
This year, we campaigned nationally for a £2K uplift in pay for all. We engaged hundreds of members locally and held events in the summer, where we gave away ice cream and other goodies on several healthcare sites across the city. Despite the response nationally not hitting the legally required numbers for further action, the turnout at Livewell for the consultative ballot was significantly higher than the national average. I would therefore like to thank our Reps for their hard work and organisation around this campaign and also our members for responding in such huge numbers. This issue has not gone away and we will look for other ways to fight for a fair deal for members while we wait for the this year’s recommendation from the pay review body
TUPE Transfer of Staff
In the summer, we supported our members who were TUPE transferred from the physical healthcare wards at Livewell to the management of University Hospitals Plymouth, to ensure that all their legal rights were protected. We hope they will be very happy in their new fully NHS home, and if not, don’t worry, they are still Plymouth in UNISON members.
Trade Union Release Time for Reps
We also successfully challenged Livewell around Trade Union release time, to ensure that the law around National Guidance and Local Policy were being implemented correctly within the organisation. This resulted in our Reps being able to access reasonable release time, in order to fulfil their duties in supporting members, when needed.
Menopause
Plymouth in UNISON was pivotal in organising the Menopause at work seminars . We worked with Livewell , GMB , UHP Derriford and Plymouth city council to organise and fund the 5 sessions that were facilitated by Alison Foster from the Trades Union Congress / Bristol College . These sessions were well attended and received by members and we hope to build on these sessions with ongoing discussions to hopefully continue to raise awareness and develop support structures such as Menopause Cafes etc.
More Work to Do…..Levelling Up !!
Holiday Pay Calculations
This year, our focus at Livewell will be to ensure that our members are recognised in the same way as our NHS colleagues. Prior to the Pandemic, we received several hundred replies from members, regarding an issue surrounding how unsocial hours holiday pay entitlement is calculated at Livewell. UNISON believe that for staff who have more than 10 years of service these payments have been incorrectly calculated for many years. For the last three years, we have been in discussions with Livewell for these calculations to be amended, using examples of where other organisations have revised and back paid their payments accordingly. As we continue to engage with Livewell on this matter, we will be in touch with members for their support, should we be unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
Public Sector Pensions
We also continue to campaign for all staff to be eligible to receive the NHS or Local Government Pension Scheme. NHS Employers promoted the advantages of the scheme during their pay submission to the Government, explaining that the benefits should be taken into account when setting our Annual Pay increase. Other advantages of the scheme, include Death in Service and Ill Health Retirement options, if appropriate. We acknowledge that monthly pension contributions for individuals will increase but believe that the enhanced Employer Contributions mean that employees will be significantly better off at the end of their career. We also believe that members should have more adequate pay in order to be able to make those monthly contributions making that the NHS pension is affordable to all.
Health Care Assistant Banding
Plymouth in UNISON is joining the national UNISON campaign to ensure that all Health Care Assistants (HCAs), are paid appropriately for the role they undertake. National research has indicated that there are a significant number of Band 2 HCAs undertaking clinical tasks that should potentially be paid at Band 3. Later this year, we will be asking members to participate in a survey to help us understand if this is an issue for HCAs employed by Livewell.
Mandatory Vaccinations
We continue to support staff during the implementation of the law surrounding mandatory vaccinations. We attend a weekly Devon wide task and finish group led by the CCG to ensure all organisations are consistently implementing the law as it stands and that redeployment opportunities are looked at as the first option. We recognise that unfortunately redeployment opportunities will be limited and therefore we might be in a position whereby some members could lose their jobs on the 1st of April. We are committed to supporting all members during the HR processes being undertaken by organisations who are carrying out this national legislation.
Nationally, UNISON supports vaccination in Health and Social Care. The vaccine is safe, and we encourage all members who do not have a medical exemption to get their vaccination. However, it should be your decision to have the vaccination and the UK government should promote using persuasion and reassurance. We have argued that this will result in people leaving Health and Social Care jobs and will ultimately add pressure to already stretched services. UNISON remains extremely concerned about the impact that the Vaccination Condition Of Deployment policy will have on numbers of staff leaving the NHS.
We have raised, and continue to raise, these concerns with policy makers and politicians.
Despite the challenges we have all experienced during the Pandemic, our membership at Livewell continues to grow, giving us a strong voice when debating, negotiating and engaging with the employer for the benefits of all members
Thank you for your continued support.
Dave Dodd & Karen Owens Lead Reps. for Livewell
