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5 March 2010: GMB Ballot: Joint staff update from
the City of Edinburgh Council, UNISON and Unite the
Union
UNISON urges council to negotiate, not impose
Special
briefing issued on Modernising Pay: Up to date advice
on what happens next.. (pdf)
UNISON calls for real talks as council serves
notice on 'Modernising Pay'.
Consultation brings clear rejection of proposals
UPDATE
1 November 2009: The Branch carried out a lengthy
and wide ranging consultation throughout August
and September including nearly 40 meetings of members,
online enquiry forms and telephone queries.
“This has been one of the largest, most worthwhile
and constructive exercises we have ever done”, said
Kevin Duguid, Service Conditions Co-ordinator. “The
overwhelming majority of our members have said very
clearly that they reject the package of proposals
as they stand”. “We have given a detailed response
to Council reflecting that and we await a formal
response from them. Our colleagues in our sister
unions Unite & GMB have also rejected the proposals.”
The position as of today is as follows:-
1) An updated UNISON bulletin to all 9,000 members
arrived from the printers on Friday 30 October and
will come out this week. That will cover all of
the issues so far and will be posted on the website
from Wednesday 4 November. Further bulletins will
follow later in the month as the Council's response
becomes clearer.
2) The union has just receieved the Council's response
and this will be analysed in detail and further
reports will follow.
3) There are complex legal issues involved and
UNISON cannot always report on these due to legal
restrictions. However the union has had numerous
meetings with legal and other advisers. At this
stage, our advice is that, alongside all the other
problems with the Council's proposals, they do not
meet the legal equality criteria. Further updates
on this will follow.
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Council plans 'fail to meet equality criteria'
14 August 2009: UNISON is taking further
advice as specialist reports suggest 'Modernising
Pay' will not deliver on equality. As reported before,
for legal reasons the union cannot ballot on a scheme
that is not 'equality proof'. The issue is complicated
by the Council adding conditions changes on top
of the job evaluation process. The Branch is now
taking further advice from national officials, inlcuding
whether we can have a separate ballot on the conditions
aspect.
Alongside this, the Branch is collating all the
views gathered from the 21 consultation meetings
with members over the last three weeks, before taking
those views back into negotiations with the Council.
Look out for more details.
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Branch Consultation
26 June 2009: The City of Edinburgh Council
has begun briefing and writing to staff about 'Modernising
Pay'. This could be the biggest change in pay and
conditions we have ever seen.
We are currently writing to members to tell then
how UNISON is going to consult its members on the
Council's proposals.
The proposals cover two main areas. The first is
the outcome of job evaluation which affects your
grade and pay. The other is a host of other changes
to conditions the council wants to implement.
PLEASE NOTE: These are proposals from
the Council. It is the Council that is bringing
forward the plans and as yet there is no agreement
with the unions. Over the next few weeks we
will be putting the following on the website:
It is the Council's responsibility to brief you and
answer your questions. We would urge you to contact
management in the first place because information
may be quite specific from one employee to another.
But we know members will also want to consult their
union. However, our office could not cope with thousands
of calls on this issue while still allowing staff
and branch officers to work on other issues. That
is why we are asking you to:-