Probation staff vote to strike

UNISON’s probation members working for the National Probation Service and the 21 outsourced Community Rehabilitation Companies in England and Wales have voted yes to industrial action over the zero per cent pay offer for 2014.

The result of the ballot is at follows:

Are you prepared to take part in a strike?

Yes: 73 per cent
No: 27 per cent

Are you prepared to take part in action short of strike action?

Yes: 88 per cent
No: 12 per cent

UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: “The employers have failed to offer a decent pay deal for staff for the last four years. The economy is recovering and this should be reflected in pay packets.

“The probation employers’ zero per cent pay offer is an insult to hard working probation staff who have been put through the misery of the government’s misguided probation reforms.

“There is still time for more negotiations and for the employers to come up with a real pay offer.”

UNISON balloted its members because of the employers’ failure to improve their zero per cent pay offer to probation staff for 2014.

Earlier this year, 96 per cent of UNISON members who took part in an internal consultation over the 2014 imposed pay freeze voted to reject it.

UNISON represents 4,300 probation workers in England and Wales.

Details of the 2014 probation staff pay offer:
Zero per cent pay increase
A one-off/non-pensionable cash payment for staff at the top of their pay scale, as follows:
Pay Band 1          £300
Pay Band 2          £300
Pay Band 3          £300
Pay Band 4          £330
Pay Band 5          £345
Pay Band 6          £385

All staff received their contractual entitlement to one increment on their salary scale.

About 20 per cent of the probation workforce are at the top of their pay scale.

The Liberal Trade Unionsists believe workers were faced with no other option than to vote for strike action. If they had accepted the zero % pay offer, this could have been the catalyst for further attacks on wages and even working conditions. There comes to a point when workers have to make a stand.

Support Parents & Carers Spotlight Day

Each year USDAW  holds a campaign day called Supporting Parents and Carers. Hundreds of reps and activists get involved by running campaigns at their workplaces.

This year’s campaign day is on Wednesday 24 June and the aim is to encourage members who are worried about changes to their jobs, hours of work or money to talk to Usdaw.

If you would like to get involved on Spotlight Day, you can do as much or as little as you like. Usdaw will send you everything you need to help you have a successful campaign.

You could:

•     Give out leaflets to members about how Usdaw can help.

•     Ask members and non-members to sign the pledge.

•     Put a poster on your workplace noticeboard.

•     Talk to members about the Union’s campaign.

You can also order your materials online to support your campaigning on the day. The Liberal Trade Unionists fully support USDAW in this campaign and urge our members to do whatever they can to get involved and to help their fellow workers.

Do you consider yourself to have a disability?

 Below is an interesting piece from Liron Shekel, a boipolar worker and member of the BECTU trade union


“Do you consider yourself to have a disability?”; even if you’re completely open about your mental health disorder, you can’t help but think about it for a moment when you see this question in your job application. “Should I say yes?”, “is it considered a disability?”, “what difference would it make?” and so on.
I moved to London in September and applied for a countless amount of jobs. My criteria were clear- I want to work in a theatre or a cinema and I want to work in customer service as I have done since I was 16.
I couldn’t find many opportunities. It took two months until I finally came across something that seemed perfect, at my favourite London theatre. Filling out that application was stressful, and I decided to tick that “disabled” box. Keeping my bipolar disorder quiet in the past always hurt me (literally, put me in a place where I hurt myself physically) and I vowed after my last pill overdose five years ago I would never hide it again.

The next question was whether I require any adjustments for the interview. The only image that came to my mind then was of a physically disabled person who has problems with their mobility and would therefore need some sort of adjustment to accommodate them. So I wrote, “no, thank you” and moved on.
I got the job and no one ever stopped to ask, “what is the disability you mentioned in your application?”, in fact, legally they’re not allowed to, apparently. They’re not allowed to ask without my consent, and ticking a box isn’t enough for consent.

There were times I considered mentioning it to my managers, supervisors or colleagues, but then I didn’t want any special treatment. I wanted to be treated equally, and shouting it off the rooftops seemed odd and like it had nothing to do with anything.

However, my bipolar meant I took things a little differently. It meant being stressed, paranoid and anxious or getting depressed for no reason at times. It meant taking everything a little more personally and having moments in which all I wanted was to look myself in the staff toilets and cry nonstop. Unfortunately it also meant fighting with colleagues and those in charge because I have reached a point where I couldn’t take things anymore.

I was the one who vowed never to hide it, but because I didn’t come out with it straight away, it took me a couple of months until I gathered up the courage to apologize to everyone I felt I mistreated due to my symptoms and admitted “I will sometimes take things a little differently than I should, it’s because I’m bipolar. Please don’t misjudge me for it and if I act in a way that I shouldn’t, please talk to me about it”.
Most of my colleagues were very understanding and some adapted to this new “information”. Some had more problems dealing with it or were already too prejudiced against me to adapt. For example, some continued to misjudge and blame me for issues because of previous conflicts.

I don’t blame them, I don’t blame anyone. I still find it hard to understand or accept that I might, at times, think so differently and process things in a way that others don’t. People always tell us that we need to try and put ourselves in the other person’s shoes, but what if the shoes are so tight it hurts to walk in them?
It did however; bring me to the point where it became unhealthy for me. Where I had to seek support once again since those terrible, harmful thoughts I haven’t had in 5 years crossed my mind once again. I got so scared of working sometimes, scared of what might be said to me and even more terrified of messing up, anything (which, at times, was a self-fulfilling prophecy).

It also meant I worked harder though, to make a good impression. I handled some situations so well I got amazing feedback from customers.

When I got to the point where I felt I can no longer continue this way- lying awake all night worrying about what might happen, not being able to eat cos you’re so afraid you might get fired for no reason (which also scares you twice as much when you’re not a contracted employee), losing hair, being constantly anxious, locking yourself in your room — that was when I finally turned and asked for help.

Once I turned to our union representative and was ready to discuss my condition, I found a lot of support from HR and even found out we have a welfare consultant in the building. I turned back to therapy and medication. But mainly returned to my mantra that “we need to talk about it”.

If I discussed it from the start, it could have made a difference. I truly believe that. First impressions are at times hardest to change (especially when they’ve been forming for a couple of months). It’s best to be honest from that very first moment. I am disabled because it affects me in every aspect of my life, and if I was a wheelchair user I wouldn’t hide the fact I need a wheelchair, so if I think or feel differently because of a condition, I should discuss it with those around me.

The only thing I suggest for us is to talk about it. Don’t hide or be ashamed of our disorderly friend because it is there whether we like it or not. It doesn’t make us bad employees — if anything, I feel like it made me much better with customers.

And for those working with us, our colleagues and managers, I suggest — be open-minded. If you can get training regarding mental health, even better because it is really hard to understand — it happens to me too when I talk to people with other mental health disorders.

From my own personal experience, the worst thing you can do is judge us or talk about us behind our backs. Nothing made me feel worse than hearing people are bad mouthing me behind my back. It was my sign that my anxiety and paranoia were all correct and were there for a reason. Don’t feed our monsters: talk to us.
Nothing made me feel better than a sense of security and support and it can make our day to day lives so much easier — or at least more bearable.

Article courtesy of Stronger Unions

Election puts us at the edge of the abyss

For many of us on the left, the result of last week’s General Election has taken a lot of sinking in. Generally most of us are in shock and horror. Have people really in their hearts voted for severe cuts? Were they really fearful of Labour in coalition with the SNP? And why in many constituencies did they punish the Liberal Democrats by voting for the party they went into coalition with?

In many ways the result was so strange it’s hard to put the finger on one particular reason for the result, unless people were too embarrassed to admit they were voting Tory.

As Trade Unionists we don’t for one minute swallow the line that people refused to vote Labour as they thought it was not a party of aspiration. Ed Miliband said on countless occasions he believed the country was doing well when the people were doing well. That meant all the people, including those running small businesses. With an unbiased media, this would have been the message largely received by the public. But as we know the media is not unbiased, with nearly all newspapers supportive of the Conservative Party. The Tories had their election broadcasts, leaflets through people’s doors and on top of this newspapers delivering the Conservative message.

As Liberal Trade Unionists, we are obviously not supportive of the centralised diktat socialism often delivers. But we do believe in fairness and the election campaign was probably the most unfair in living memory. The outcome is going to be an assault on the trade unions, on benefit claimants, the disabled and the poor.

But there is no point in dwelling on the past, when the future holds a huge struggle for people, for unions and those on the progressive left.  Clearly as trade unionists we must be at the heart of any fight against the Tories and their agenda. But politically we are fully supportive of groups such as Compass which wishes to bring together parties under the progressive umbrella. Compass states, ‘All progressive parties need to start to work to together. Clearly there is already a desire for this from progressive voters’. We urge all progressives to heed this message.

As the Conservatives are likely to use boundary changes to keep control, we need to think smart and put the tribalism of politics to one side. As trade unionists our key priority is to protect workers. Working with other progressives we believe is a key way forward in doing this by removing horrors of a Conservative government.

The impact of government policies on disabled workers

A report from the Public Interest Research Unit on behalf of Disabled People Against Cuts shows the cumulative impact of the Coalition government’s policies on disabled workers in employment. Although the report’s author, Rupert Harwood, acknowledges the self-selecting basis of his study of the experiences of 137 disabled workers, their stories confirm the evidence reported by many trade union members.
The overall (headline) figure for the employment of disabled people as a proportion of the total numbers employed has not got worse since 2010, and that itself is important because it is the first time in history that disabled people had not been worse affected by the unemployment and redundancies that accompany recession. Similarly with the headline figures for the creation of new jobs that the present government made great play of last month.

But headline figures are just that: they tell you nothing of the actual experience of disabled workers in the economy and, as a new, detailed TUC study of the employment picture that will be published shortly will show, the increase in disabled people’s employment levels is only the same as the overall increase, as an honest presentation would have confirmed.

But these numbers conceal more than they reveal. The real story revealed by this report is qualitative.
While some employers continue to operate good practice, many are going backwards. The individual accounts tell of worsening work experiences with the accumulating effects of reduced legal rights, reduced access to justice (tribunal fees for example), and massive pressure on employers to reduce costs have increased stress levels (as exposed by the presentations at the TUC’s mental health seminar earlier this year), reduced career opportunities, and increased job insecurity amid a greater use of zero-hours contracts and of insecure agency contracts.

Many disabled workers have found themselves forced into self-employment, not through choice but necessity and the threat of benefit sanctions, and struggle to earn enough to live on.
Many of the sample report increasing reluctance by managers to carry out the “reasonable adjustments” they are bound by law to make, even in the public sector which is additionally bound by the Equality Act Equality Duty.

Even worse, the “drip drip effect” of media vitriol against disabled benefit claimants (as one respondent said) makes fellow workers increasingly hostile to what they now see as “special treatment”, and (as another reported) makes the worker more reluctant to disclose an impairment, while others have been accused of “faking their disability”.

The statistics show that employment levels for disabled people have not got worse (though nor have they improved). But if, as this report suggests, there is a general worsening of the conditions for many disabled workers and an end to the progress previously being made in popular acceptance of disabled people’s right to work, and right to adjustments where they are needed, then whoever is in government on 8 May will face a big challenge to reverse this toxic trend which appears to contradict the commitments made by the UK government when it endorsed the United National Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Report courtesy of  Touchstone Blog by Peter Purton, Equal Rights Policy Officer at the TUC  

International May Day distress call from the Trade Union movement

The Liberal Trade Unionists are naturally concerned about the further shackling and introduction of anti-Trade Union laws here in Britain. This is one reason why we campaign for a review of the anti-Trade Union legislation introduced by Margaret Thatcher and continued under New Labour and the Tory-Liberal Democrat Coalition. With Trade Unions very much under the government cosh in this country, its all too easy to take your eye of the ball internationally. As committed internationalists we should stand shoulder to shoulder with our union brothers and sisters across the world.

Owen Tudor, head of the TUC's European Union and International Relations Department writes in the following report of how other governments are cracking down on union activity.

'It seems that Governments around the world are cracking down on trade union activities on international workers’ day more than usual. From Bahrain to Swaziland and from Iran to Somalia and Turkey, trade unions are reporting interference from their Government. These attacks on the rights to freedom of assembly and expression suggest that Governments are more worried than ever about the threat to dictatorships that trade unionism represents. But these attacks aren’t just about whether people can protest in the streets – what motivates trade unionists to protest under the shadow of beatings and imprisonment are much bigger issues.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have protested about the Government of Bahrain‘s decision to prohibit the May Day rally organised by the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions, one of the few free trade unions in the region.

In Iran, where the Government has a record of stopping May Day rallies, and plenty of brave trade unionists are languishing in the regime’s jails, global manufacturing union federation IndustriALL has written to the Government demanding that it let trade unionists protest on May Day.

The Somalian trade union movement FESTU was told that it could not hold its own May Day event, but its affiliates would be ‘allowed’ to pay towards the Government’s ‘celebrations’. The TUC was one of the organisations which protested to the Somalian Government, and FESTU held an event in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday evening. The organisation’s rally will be in Garowe, Puntland on May Day itself.
In Swaziland, the International Trade Union Confederation has protested that the dictator King Mswati has threatened police violence against trade unionists taking part in a planned rally in the major commercial city of Manzini. Police have announced that only ‘recognised unions’ will be allowed to celebrate May Day and said that they will enforce ‘law and order’ at any rally. The authorities have refused to recognise the legitimate trade union centre TUCOSWA as part of a blanket repression of free speech and freedom of association. Five years ago, union activist Sipho Jele was arrested at the May Day rally in Swaziland and later found dead in his cell, and opposition leader Mario Masuku was arrested – and remains behind bars – after shouting political slogans at last year’s union rally.

And we’ve heard today that Turkish unions have continued their calls to meet in Istanbul’s Taksim Square for May Day celebrations, but the Istanbul Police Department has begun taking excessive security measures to prevent unions from gathering at the square after the governor’s office prohibited rallies in the square. The May Day Organizing Committee, consisting of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK), the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) and the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), have called union members and members of the public to meet in Istanbul’s city center but in a different way this year'.

Report courtesy of  Stronger Unions blog