Report of the

Executive Committee

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2008

Monday 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, Pal Carter, Rory Bruce, Louise O’Shea, Bob Coote, Tony Bride, Neil Davies and Shupi Begum for their long-standing commitment to the union.

This is the last opportunity for the Branch as a whole to express its thanks to Pal Carter, who has announced her intention of taking retirement. Pal has been a UNISON representative and Branch Officer since the 1980’s and she will be missed by the EC for her work as Equalities Officer. We wish her the happiest of retirements.

Delegates to other bodies

Annual Delegate Conference, Local Government Conferences: Tim Harvey
Cities of London and Westminster Trades Council: David Stratton; Malcolm Key

Retired Members’ Conference and Pensioners’ Parliament: Bob Coote

UNISON Regional Council: David Stratton

Local Govt Pension Scheme Special Conference Tim Harvey

Assistance

Members received received representation and advice over the year for:

Dismissal and redundancy

Disciplinaries: computer abuse

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: Special General Meeting

Probation

We had an important case going to Employment Tribunal, in which our member won a big award against the City for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination (details on our web-site).

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. Tim Harvey attended Local Govt Pension Scheme Special Conference to represent the branch and report back to the EC.

Pay and Grading

This has for once been the dominant issue over the year. The Branch held a Special General Meeting and conducted a survey of members about new pay scales, the results of which were presented to the employer. Members are reminded that all City of London staff now await letters confirming their new grades and providing details of what they can do to appeal the result. UNISON will provide advice and representation for all members.

Appraisal/Performance Management

Members are currently having the employer’s new Professional Development Framework applied to them and UNISON has been doing its best to keep up-to-date with details on our web page. We understand that there are still facets of the scheme, in particular relating to performance-related pay, which are yet to be revealed. Branch Officers have been involved in the piloting of the scheme and training for its implementation and will be available for advice and representation to members.

Recognition

This year, with the help of Regional Officer John Noblemunn, 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 (Unite and GMB) as is the case in all other local government workforces.

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 (twice!).

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.

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.

Web Page

Thanks to David Stratton for his efforts in maintaining the page. An interesting item to look for on the page is our UNISON advert in the City’s Road Safety Guide – UNISON was the only trade union asked to advertise in it!

One thing you will notice is that the Branch has changed its name to follow suit with the change the employer made – from Corporation of London to City of London, which also entailed changing our web address and our e-mail address. (Don’t worry if you are still using the old details- they will continue to work.)

Updated 15 March 2008