Whilst looking forward to another busy and productive year as 2022 turns to 2023, we would like to take a bit of time to reflect on some of the many successes we have had as a union in the past 12 months.
In a time when most of our members are struggling and worried about the cost-of-living crisis and the state our country is in presently, we successfully managed to get money back into members pockets.
At the start of the year a UNISON led 3-year campaign relating to Holiday working time directive pay came to a favourable conclusion. This campaign resulted in members receiving back pay of up to 2yrs and in some cases many hundreds of pounds were reimbursed by Livewell to our members bank accounts. Of course, other members will benefit from this “success” as going forward members will now receive the correct remuneration whilst on annual leave regarding unsocial hour payment calculations.
We have successfully led a campaign to ensure Health Care Assistants at Livewell are being paid in line with the NHS national terms and conditions. This campaign started back in February of this year and in November Livewell agreed to implement the changes needed to band. This resulted in many of our lowest paid clinical staff being uplifted from band 2 to band 3, directly leading to more money going straight into members pay.
We have work to do on this issue however and we have entered a dispute with Livewell over back pay on this matter and also the banding of new starters. We are working with members to get an outcome in line with the NHS national guidance which states that money should be “backdated to when the postholder and manager agreed the job has changed”. We believe that the job of an HCA has not fundamentally changed for a number of years and so pay including backpay should reflect this condition of employment .Livewell initially agreed at board level to 1 yrs. back pay , this offer does not reflect what the national guidance suggest and also goes nowhere near the settlement UNISON members have received in place such as Manchester, Bristol or Bath. We will keep members informed of our challenges to Livewell’s current stance and update members on any progress we make on this issue. More details of this campaign can be found on this link Pay fair for patient care | Healthcare assistants | UNISON National
We also led a delegation of reps to the Houses of Parliament and shared the experiences of members with MPS in the corridors of power.
Pay remains an issue throughout the health service. We have supported colleagues on the picket line over recent weeks and understand that only by building union organisation will we get the influence we need to save our NHS from more years of under investment.
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This year we have successfully worked with Livewell to sign UNISONs apprentice charter which enshrines protections for our future workforce. You can find further details 26686.pdf (unison.org.uk)
UNISON asked Livewell to sign the menopause at work pledge Sign the Menopause Workplace Pledge (wellbeingofwomen.org.uk) which they did in the autumn of last year . This was part of a bigger piece of work that ensured menopause awareness training was rolled out throughout Livewell to ensure staff who are transitioning through the journey of the menopause are supported. The training sessions were UNION led and over five
hundred staff attended from the three main Plymouth health and social care employers (PCC, UHP and Livewell). UNISON part funded these sessions, and they were open to all members of the branch regardless of employer.
We have also worked on several organisational change proposals and ensured that any changes where consistent with national guidance and where applicable members views were considered when the final draft were produced.
We need you
A union is something you join, not just a service you buy. UNISONs membership at Livewell has for several years increased and this year we again saw growth. With the added members come increase workload and as an organising union we need members to stand up to represent colleagues both in the workplace, more generally at Livewell and beyond. We have vacancies for reps to undertake case work, negotiating, health and safety, learning and development, sit on committees / working groups and welfare issues. Full training and mentorship will be available so come and join us, please contact daviddodd@nhs.net
