UNISON police staff members working in forces in England and Wales are to stage a 24-hour strike starting at 07.00 hours on Friday 23 January, followed by a month of action short of strike action.
Unison represents 30,000 police staff in England and Wales. They work in jobs such as 999 call takers, police community support officers, scenes of crime officers, fingerprint experts, financial investigators, detention officers, crime reduction officers, crime analysts, enquiry desk officers, trainers, criminal justice clerks, and a wide range of vital operational and organisational support roles.
The initial strike planned for Monday 22 December 2014 was suspended to allow further negotiations between the union and the employers. The suspension also meant that the month-long ban on voluntary overtime was withdrawn.
Earlier this year the union asked for a three per cent, or £500, increase (whichever is the greater) on police staff pay points. The police employers responded by making another miserable one per cent offer.
In the ballot, 60% voted yes for industrial action and 80% for action short of strike action in a ballot that closed on 2 December 2014.
Unison national officer Ben Priestley said: ‘Industrial action is a last resort and the initial talks with the employers were encouraging. We are hopeful that we can resolve the dispute and avoid any disruption.
‘The rules around industrial action mean we have had to call another strike day to ensure we are still able to take strike action should the talks break down.’
• Unite reports that a consultation by the European Commission has revealed huge opposition among the public over the controversial trade deal called TTIP.
The Commission received an unprecedented 150,000 responses – over a third from the UK – mainly opposing the so-called Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which threatens the NHS with irreversible privatisation.
Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, said: ‘The people of this country do not believe it is right for the NHS to be part of a US trade deal.
‘Britain expects David Cameron to stand up for the NHS and use his veto in Europe to get the NHS out of TTIP.
‘Unite has polled 17 Tory seats including David Cameron’s and Jeremy Hunt’s seats. In every case voters oppose the NHS being part of TTIP.
‘The NHS unites this country, it is the single most important local issue for voters. The Prime Minister has cut himself adrift from public opinion by refusing to listen. Britain is demanding that he uses his veto.’
The trade deal is being negotiated behind closed doors, between EU bureaucrats and delegates from the United States.
It is the largest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated and threatens to make the ongoing privatisation of the NHS irreversible by giving the profits of corporations precedence over national lawmakers.
TTIP could grant American multinationals, or any firm with American investors, the power to sue the government if it ever attempted to take privatised health services back into public ownership.
• Shopworkers trade union leader John Hannett has welcomed the announcement by Liz Kendall MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Care and Older People, setting out the Party’s plans to improve support for England’s 5.4 million unpaid family carers.
Hannett, USDAW General Secretary said: ‘Carers make a huge contribution, not only to the well-being of their family, but to wider society as well.
‘They save the country a huge amount of money and provide care with dedication, love and unique understanding. It is right that they are valued.
‘However, carers are often under a great deal of pressure, particularly if they are also trying to hold down a job. USDAW represents thousands of members struggling to balance work, home life and their caring responsibilities.
‘USDAW’s own research shows that over half of our women members in their 50s and older are regularly looking after grandchildren and in most cases are combining this with looking after another relative, friend or neighbour.
‘We know that there can be pressure on older women to give up family-friendly shift patterns to accommodate colleagues bringing up their own children.
‘The caring commitments of many older women looking after grandchildren or elderly parents are much less well recognised.
‘So we welcome Labour’s policies to help older women juggle work and care. Improving flexible working for family carers, which could include a new period of “adjustment leave” to help families cope with a short-term crisis, would make a real difference.
‘We also welcome annual health checks for carers, a single point of contact with care services, ring-fenced funding for carers’ breaks, help with transport costs and of course the abolition of the grossly unfair Bedroom Tax, which penalises over 60,000 carers.
‘For too long working carers have been overlooked. Labour has today set out policies that will begin to change their lives.’
• Only 16 from 650 MPs secured 40% support of people entitled to vote that the Tories want as a threshold for strike action in public services, says the GMB.
If the Tories are returned again in May they would have no hesitation in forming a government while not securing 40% support from the electorate.
The GMB commented on the Tory Party announcement of a manifesto commitment that strike ballots in public services will require 40 per cent support from those entitled to vote.
Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary, said: ‘Only 16 out of 650 elected Members of Parliament secured the support of 40% of those entitled to vote in their parliamentary constituency area election in 2010.
‘Only 15 Tory MPs out of 303 secured that level of support. If the Tories are returned again in May they would have no hesitation in forming a government while not securing 40% support from the electorate.
‘Yet they propose to use that power to impose a 40% threshold on trade union members voting for strike action.
‘The Tories are class warriors. They are the party of the rich and powerful seeking to shackle workers seeking to defend themselves after years of pay freezes.’
• A Freedom of Information request by construction union UCATT has revealed a sharp growth in the use of the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) in the last full financial year.
The increase in CIS is a clear indicator of an increase in false self-employment in the industry. The HMRC confirmed that in 2013/14 there were 924,000 workers paid under CIS.
This compares with 849,000 workers paid under the scheme in the previous 12 months, a 9% (75,000) increase in the use of CIS.
The 9% increase was substantially greater than the entire increase in the construction workforce.
According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) the construction workforce increased from 1.984 million workers in March 2013 to 2.035 million workers in March 2014. This was an increase of 51,000 workers or 3%.
Steve Murphy, General Secretary of UCATT, said: ‘This large rise in the use of CIS was way beyond the total increase in the construction workforce and demonstrates that false self-employment is out of control in construction.
‘Employers clearly believe that they can falsely self-employ workers and deny them basic employment rights with impunity.’
Rather than begin to pay workers on a standard PAYE basis following the government’s changes, many agencies instead introduced the umbrella company model which results in the worker being charged both employer’s and employees’ national insurance contributions (25% of eligible earnings).
Murphy, added: ‘The huge increase in CIS coupled with the sudden switch to umbrella companies shows that employers will use every trick in the book to avoid paying workers properly.
‘Employers are lining their own pockets at the expense of workers. The only way to end this culture is to abolish CIS and create just two types of workers, employees and the genuinely self-employed.’
In 2012, UCATT estimated that false self-employment in the construction industry was costing the Exchequer £1.9 billion per annum.
The principle beneficiaries are employers who avoided paying £1.2 billion in employer’s national insurance contributions.
