UNISON Plus
This edition of Branch Lines features a few of the ways you can save money through your UNISON membership. Help with the weekly shop One …
News
News in brief
DV advice Did you know that some UNISON Reps are trained to advise on Domestic Violence issues? Since our last edition of Branch Lines we have supported a female member in this position. For more info, please contact the Branch office. Insurance increase UNISON’s free personal accident insurance and death …
Pay round-up
NJC Local Government After discussion at its Branch Committee, UNISON West Sussex believed the most appropriate pay claim for 2014/15 would be for ‘a minimum increase of £1 an hour on scale point 5 to achieve the Living Wage and the same flat rate increase on all other scale points’. Most …
Youth Services decimated
West Sussex Youth Services have been hit by a massive additional cut of £950K, on top of an already anticipated £700K. So £1.65M will be cut from April 2014, and this means 118 essential youth work jobs supporting our young people are to go. UNISON Branch Secretary Dan Sartin spoke …
Capita: the first year
Multinational firm Capita plc won the contract to supply West Sussex County Council ‘back office’ functions for ten years from October 2012. Since then, the relationship with UNISON did not get off to an auspicious start. A number of consultations were started suddenly, some on redundancy, without warning and in …
Personal injury
Every UNISON member is entitled to use the union’s free personal injury legal service through the union’s solicitors Thompsons. They will often take cases that claim companies and ‘no-win no fee’ solicitors will not. Also, they don’t take any cut of damages awarded. This is one of the many benefits …
Negotiations with Aspire
Following organisational changes at Aspire Sussex, UNISON has been supporting individual members in getting the best out of a difficult situation, including changes from term-time only working to whole year, changes in location and changes to hours which have precipitated redundancies. Following the formal consultation, some additional staff hours have …
The Heat Is On
UNISON members will have noticed an improvement in heat ing arrangements in the County Hall campus in Chichester. After problems last year that saw members wearing gloves and bring hot water bottles to work, Branch Health & Safety Reps have worked with facilities managers to secure an improvement. A series …
Individual Supports
The Branch successfully resolved hours of working for a school-based member who needed to take unpaid leave so that she could also work as principal carer for a disabled child. We also challenged the refusal of a parish council to allow flexible working for a member returning from maternity leave …