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Please display this poster in your workplace.
UNISON Birmingham Branch have produced a document detailing the current situation and why we're taking strike action on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th April 2008. This is hoped to counteract the misunderstandings and misconceptions that have been circulating.
Following the outcome of the mass members' meetings in March, UNISON and the Joint Trade Unions are calling further days of strike action on the 23rd and 24th April 2008.
Councillor Alan Rudge has now formally agreed to extend the 10 week period for lodging the Stage 1 appeal forms. The period will now end on 31 March and not 29 February.
According to a Birmingham Mail poll of shoppers in the city centre revealed "most people would back striking council workers despite the prospect of bin bags piling up and street lamps going on the blink." In a poll of 250 people, 169 (68%) said they would give their support while 79 said no and 5 were undecided.
Hidden within the new contract is an extra little insult on top of the unfair
level of pay for 'gainers' placed on new Grade 2, which will cost them an extra
£268 a year. The council have decided to alter the national pay spine
by giving a lower value to spine point 11, which is the starting point for Grade
2. On the national pay spine, point 11 is paid at £14,197 per year. This
national point 11 is not half way between 10 and 12, but much closer to 12.
So the council are lowering point 11 to even out the steps from 10 and 12. Unfortunately,
thousands of low paid women are placed on spine point 11 because of their historic
low pay. They will receive £13,928, some £268 lower than they should
do. This includes cooks, carers and home carers. Over 9,000 staff will be affected
by this.
UNISON is demanding the council corrects this discrimination and sticks to the
national pay spine.
On Monday 28 January the Cabinet agreed a plan to limit the losses of the bonus
earning groups such as street cleaners, refuse collectors, street lighting workers
and chauffeur drivers. These groups have not been issued with the new contracts,
or given details of their planned grade, as management and unions are awaiting
the outcome of some key legal cases expected some time in February. If the legal
cases are lost, management has previously said the bonus earners would receive
no protection.
Under the plan, hardship payments will be made in 2008/9 and 2009/10 for all
bonus earners who face heavy losses in pay. The effect will be to limit the
loss in total pay for those earning less than £30,000 to 10% in the first
year and 20% in the second year. Those earning over £30,000 will have
their losses limited to 15% in year one and 20% in year two.
Our calculation of the effects for the lowest paid bonus earners, chauffeur
drivers and street cleaners is that the package helps somewhat in the first
year but offers no relief in year two. A chauffeur driver has basic pay of £12,700
plus bonus of around £4,600, making a total pay of around £17,300.
Hardly a high wage. They will be moved to the bottom of Grade 2 on £14,200,
a loss of £3,100 or 21%. Under the 'mitigation' package, their year one
loss will be 10% of total pay, or £1,730. But in year two, they will receive
one increment which will reduce their loss in pay to just below the 20% mitigation
limit. So in year two, the package offers no additional support.
From Front Page Article of Birmingham Mail, Monday 14th January 2008:-
Opposition leader Sir Albert Bore made the firm pledge at a huge rally in the
city over plans to cut pay and terminate contracts. Sir Albert told protesters
that the plans had to be scrapped and added: "If industrial action is what
it takes to achieve this, then each and every member of the Labour group will
support you."
It is the first public pledge that the city's opposition group would back strike
action and is bound to anger the controlling Conservative and Lib Dem alliance.
Sir Albert Bore told them that negotiating changes to the structure was not
an option. "It has to abandoned and the process start again," he said.
Over a thousand members took part in the Saturday 12th January rally. We were joined by trade unionists from across the region, and from public service trades unions such as the National Union of Teachers and the Public and Civil Service union. National Deputy General Secretaries and National Secretaries pledge support from UNISON, T&GWU, AMICUS and the TUC.
The Birmingham Post editorial on 9th January 2008, stated 'Council leaders
must look at amending the new grading system, or run the risk of being portrayed
as heartless employers'. We couldn't agree more.
The editorial called the pay cuts 'simply shocking' and 'cuts on a vicious scale
which would certainly throw most families in Birmingham into a spiral of debt
and dismay.'
It concludes that :
"It is clear that a decision to squeeze the new pay system into seven grades
has in part been responsible for the huge losses being suffered by some employees.
The cost of extending the framework by a further five grades would be an additional
£12million a year to the public purse, but would significantly reduce
the number of people whose wages are to be cut."
Birmingham City Council hit the front page of the Birmingham Post last week
when it blocked access from the Lotus Notes internet system to a web site put
together by an anonymous staff member to share information about the new pay
and grading contract.
UNISON welcomes the new web site - www.birminghamsinglestatus.co.uk and condemns
the council for stopping staff from accessing the site from city council computers.
Are they afraid the truth will get out ? We recommend you look at the web site
from your home computer. It is a great initiative.
The Council Meeting lobby on Tuesday 4th December involved around 2,000 members
from the council unions. Spirited speeches were made by UNISON Senior Regional
Officer, Tony Rabaiotti, Branch Assistant Secretary Caroline Johnson, as well
as Harry Harris and Steve Foster from the Unity/T&GWU.
Three councillors also gave speeches. Lib Dem councillor and MP John Hemmings
recognised that mistakes had been made for some in the new grading structure
and suggested further talks and individual appeals. The deputy leader of the
Labour opposition, Cllr Ian Ward was cheered for giving full support to industrial
action by the trade unions, offering to join us on the picket lines. Respect
Councillor Salma Yacoub called for greater funding for equal pay from the Government.
All seats were taken in four joint union members meetings in the Chamber on 20, 22, 27 and 29 November. More than 500 people packed out each meeting, and filled the over-spill meetings in Rooms 3 & 4. Hundreds were regrettably turned away as the meetings were full. The mood was highly supportive of the unions' JUST SAY NO campaign and gave strong support to calls for an industrial action ballot, should the council continue to refuse to negotiate further. More joint union meetings are being arranged to meet the unprecedented demand.
At the November 28th branch committee, 400 new members were welcomed into the branch. That's our best ever monthly total. There's still plenty more people out there who really should be in UNISON. Please encourage all your work colleagues to join us. There is strength in numbers. Membership forms available from the branch office, or UNISON Direct 0845 355 0845.
Council staff from city centre offices poured into Victoria Square at lunchtime
on Tuesday 7th November to lobby the full council meeting. The Lobby was hastily
organised by the Council trade unions in response to requests from members to
make their feelings known publicly as the full story of the 'employment package'
started to emerge late the previous week.
2000 plus members applauded speeches from local union leaders and left the councillors
in no doubt about their anger over the new contracts.
Unison the public sector Trade Union today accused Birmingham City Council of creating a false impression of delivering equal pay with their new pay structure.
Alun Gunter, Chairman of the Birmingham Branch of Unison, told us today: "Care Assistants and Home Carers have scored enough job evaluation points to be placed towards the top end of their new grade. But as the Council has decided to place them at the bottom increment, they would continue to be short changed by several thousand pounds.
Of the new 7 banded pay structure, he added "This so called 'equal pay' structure is a fake, pure and simple, and our members are not buying it. Glass ceilings and performance related pay will introduce barriers to achieving genuine equality".
"It's all an elaborate illusion, which will never deliver equal pay and
therefore we will be shortly balloting for strike action. We can not afford
to go through the pain of this exercise again in 5 or 10 years time, so the
joint trade union side are recommending that all council workers reject their
new contracts of employment". He said. (November 2007)
More than a thousand general assistants based in Birmingham City Council (Citiserve) school kitchens have just received settlement offers averaging £5,000 for indirect sex discrimination, as their jobs have rated equivalent to street sweepers under a council workforce job evaluation study.
But, angry catering supervisors will now have to wait until January as the Council has let them down at the last minute. The Council has quickly moved to silence their disquiet by preventing them from talking to the press with written threats of disciplinary action.
Unison spokeswoman Marcia Williamson, a rep in citiserve, told us today "Our telephone lines have been in melt-down at the branch, the council is facing quite a backlash from our ladies employed in kitchens, particularly the general assistants. Many are very cross with the low level of the offers and want to pursue equal pay claims. Unison will be supporting their claims at employment tribunal".
She added "It's not just about the low settlement offers, our ladies employed as general assistants can't understand how the Council can compensate them for previous pay discrimination, but then leave their hourly rates of pay unaltered and unimproved."
Speaking in solidarity, Joanne Bickley (Chair of Unison Environmental Section, and also a street cleaning rep) said "Levelling down the street cleaners pay by removing bonus, will do nothing for the plight of these low paid women workers. The Council should be levelling their pay up to the level of our street cleaners pay and then no-one would lose. Equal pay is supposed to be about raising women's pay up to the level of men's pay, not about opportunistic cost cutting".
Barry Hanley (Unison Environmental Section Secretary) who is responsible for members in both the street cleaning and citiserve catering departments summed up the situation in his section. "The Council are taking advantage of low paid women in school kitchens by settling claims on the cheap in the run up to Christmas. I find it a disgrace that they then intend to penalise the street cleaners by removing bonus to equalise pay without having to increase the hourly rates of pay in the kitchens. Their whole approach has been to level pay down rather than levelling up. We are advising all Unison members to refuse to sign the new contracts of employment which will start arriving today and we will be following this up with an industrial action ballot." (November 2007)
Writing on behalf of the Joint Trade Union side to Birmingham City Council, UNISON Branch Secretary,Carole Hagans:-
'....... the Joint Trade Unions (JTU) are in a trade dispute following the imposition of the pay and grading package.........our intention is to shortly ballot our members on industrial action. We would inform you that the ballot process will commence imminently unless you withdraw your employment package and recall your individual contract letters forthwith.
In order to avoid this trade dispute we are seeking that you
1. Reach an agreement with the JTU side over the pay structure with more grades and higher budgetary commitment in order that employees can be rewarded and assimilated nearer to their job evaluation point score
2. Reach an agreement with the JTU side regarding the wider employment package.
3. Open meaningful negotiations in order to reach agreement with the JTU over the bonus earners situation.' (16th November 2007)
Alan Gunter (Chair of UNISON Birmingham Branch) said "The Council's new proposed structure could result in around 5000 employees enduring pay cuts ranging from hundreds to thousand of pounds. No losers remains our policy".
Terry Mills (UNISON Single Status Co-ordinator) insisted that "the 7 wide banded structure that the Council have selected, coupled with traditional pay modelling assimilation rules, will not deliver equal pay within a reasonable timeframe".
Caroline Johnson (UNISON Birmingham Branch -Assistant Branch Secretary) said "We have argued that more grades but with fewer incremental steps would mean our members could be positioned closer to the actual value of points scored for their job, which would help to close the equal pay gap much sooner. Low paid women have waited long enough for equal pay. The Council's structure wont deliver it.
Sarah Brookes-Tetley (UNISON Chair of Homecare section) was concerned that "Under the Council's plans by 2010 growth increments will cease and be replaced effectively by performance related pay. This will mean moving down the incremental ladder [pay cuts] if our members performance does not measure up to the council's expectations"
Marcia Williamson (UNISON Citiserve Rep) expressed grave concerns that "In all likelihood, there would be a proliferation of workplace discrimination and victimisation following the introduction of performance related pay progression "
Joanne Bickley (UNISON Birmingham branch - environment section Chair) who has been conducting members meetings in City Council depots every morning this week described the Council's offer to create a hardship loan facility, as an "empty political gesture and an insult to our members". ( 7th September 2007)
Birmingham City Council intends to rubber stamp the withdrawal of bonus schemes at next Monday's cabinet meeting. In response to this move, following well attended members meetings in council depots with overwhelming support for strike action, we will now step up our efforts by arranging official postal ballots.
We feel that Birmingham City Council is behaving unreasonably in that it is the first local authority to exclude the value of bonus payments from protection arrangements. This will result in some staff suffering pay cuts of over 50% in the new year, without the protections afforded to other council employees under the Single Status agreement.
Bizarrely the council class these workers as 'winners' and therefore they will be placed at the bottom instead of the top of the new wide pay band, unnecessarily increasing the size of the pay cuts by several thousand pounds.
During the meetings, our members have treated the Council's suggestion that they will create a hardship loan facility, secured against the employee's homes with derision. Members argue that an inability to repay those loans due to reduced income could leave them homeless.
It is with regret that front-line public services such as refuse collection and street cleaning will be disrupted but our members are really left with little alternative in the circumstances.
The bonus issue is just the tip of the iceberg. The cabinet decisions will also include unpopular considerations such as performance related pay progression and increased flexibility of any 5 from 7 day working. The Council's proposed new grading structure will not deliver equal pay soon enough for our liking, and we will consider further legal challenge. (7th September 2007)