Report of the
Executive Committee
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2009
Tuesday 10th March
Branch Officers
This year Branch Officers remained unchanged. Branch officers give up their time freely for the benefit of members and we should record our thanks to David Stratton, Tim Harvey, Rory Bruce, Louise O’Shea, Bob Coote, Tony Bride, Nathalie Schorbon and Shupi Begum for their commitment to the union.
Delegates to other bodies
Annual Delegate Conference, Local Government Conferences: Tim Harvey (we are very grateful to Tim who has given up his leave to be Branch delegate so many times.)
Cities of London and Westminster Trades Council: David Stratton; M Key (Treasurer)
Retired Members’ Conference and Pensioners’ Parliament: Bob Coote
UNISON Regional Council: David Stratton
Local Govt Pension Scheme Special Conference Tim Harvey
Assistance
23 members received representation and advice over the year for:
Dismissal and redundancy
Disciplinaries
Staff Complaints
Changes of terms and conditions and constructive dismissal
Absence management
Flexible Working
Continuous Service
Retirement issues
Personal Injury
Redeployment
Disability
Harassment
Health and safety and Personal Injury
Pay and Grading
Probation
Pensions
Over the year we have done our best to keep branch representatives informed of developments concerning the LGPS and have updated the branch web page with the latest bulletins. One salient fact to bear in mind when you consider the national campaign UNISON is waging on pensions, is that the City, probably uniquely in the context of local government, has no special governing body for its pension fund – it relies on its Establishment Committee – let alone, employee representation. Lack of employee representation is officially considered bad practice but this seems not be a matter of concern to the recognised unions. It is to UNISON.
Pay and Grading
The branch has, as noted, represented and advised members on the City’s not-so-new pay and grading structure, which unfortunately persists in promoting its bonus-driven culture for most of its grades, basing its trust on the strategy which has served the financial services sector so well in recent years. Fortunately it has not expanded this regime to lower grades – we still wait to hear of a “recognition” scheme for these. UNISON’s position remains that the bonus culture is stupid – and if there were ever a time to demonstrate the truth of that claim, it is now, when even the right-wing press is giving it a hard time.
UNISON is handling relatively few appeals against grading decisions but the appeal process is being unreasonably slow – claims made almost 1 year ago still await a hearing – our understanding is that paperwork deadlines are routinely ignored by departments (typically 2 weeks were given to prepare paperwork and, as stated, nearly a year has elapsed). This seriously calls into question the seriousness of the process and the competence of those who agreed to the deal in the first place.
Recognition
This year, with the help of Regional Officer John Noblemunn, and National Officer Vicky Easton, we have continued to approach the City of London on the issue of normalising relations with UNISON. We will continue to press for this – to make it clear: UNISON presently forces the City to attend to it by threat of action; recognition would mean that UNISON was consulted, without having to threaten, along with its sister unions (T&GWU and GMB) as is the case in most other local government workforces.
It has become apparent over the last year that both the recognised unions are opposed to the City jointly recognising UNISON. That means that the only way we can force the issue is through recruiting more members. In order to help with that, we have now got the help of UNISON Greater London Region (in the form of Carol Lewis who is here tonight) to see what means there are to increase our membership.
Welfare
During the year Tim Harvey has looked after requests for assistance from members and their dependents, as well as being Branch Chair and Conference Delegate.
Health and Safety
In addition to being the Chair of the Executive Committee, Tony Bride has monitored health and safety matters affecting Corporation staff throughout the year and has reported to the EC on issues of concern.(e.g. rats in the justice rooms)
Retired Members’ Section
This section of Branch membership has had another year’s stalwart service from Bob Coote, who has once again been extremely active.
Equalities
This has been Nathalie Schorbon’s first year as Equalities Secretary – thanks to her for reporting regularly to the EC on Equalities matters
Membership Services
Louise O’Shea has looked after Membership Services and has made sure we up-to-date links available for the web page showing UNISON offers to members
Recruitment
Rory Bruce has kept membership records up-to-date and developed a recruitment pack to send to new City staff. It is very important to let Rory know if you have new staff in your department. The city no longer publishes lists of new joiners, so we rely on information about them coming to us – he is on the City’s e-mail network, so that’s the best way to let him know.
Young Members
Shupi Begum has kept the Young Members’ post going for us, but we need more young members – that goes for UNISON nationally as well as for us. Thanks to Shupi for helping in this way.
Web Page
Thanks to David Stratton for his efforts in maintaining the page. We are about to get more help with this from Nathalie Schorbon who has offered her services – and watch out for the branch FaceBook page which she has set up – soon to be announced!
Diaries
Finally, if you have not had, or have had and lost your UNISON diary, there are spares available, so help yourselves…
Updated 21 March 2009
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