The TWIG

 Welcome to the new newsletter “the Twig” which is part of the Branch of course. We hope to publish this newsletter at least every quarter from now on. But whilst this is about us communicating with you, we would also like you to communicate with us, by sending in some information about what is happening in your neck of the woods as far as UNISON is concerned.

Terms and Conditions changes – The full story.

 

 We are all now well aware of the Terms and Conditions review which recently came in. UNISON Quarriers Branch has tried as far as possible to keep everyone up to date by regular letters to your home and via our website. We thought we should now let you know from a negotiators viewpoint how it all came about.

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n May of last year UNISON received an email from Quarriers outlining a proposal from them to review our Terms and Conditions. The Branch negotiators met as soon as possible and started looking at alternatives to Quarriers proposals. It was clear from the outset that the main thing Quarriers wanted was to have a pay freeze this year and remove night enhancements immediately. We felt that while the economic situation could mean a pay freeze the night enhancement was something we should fight for. And so two months of meetings started to see if we could reach agreement. At all times though, the night enhancement was the main prize for Quarriers, it would save £600,000 approximately.

On the 17^th July (Glasgow Fair Friday) two of our negotiating team were on holiday and the other was at work preparing for a nice weekend off. At about two o’clock Quarriers HR Manager approached Gerry McSheffrey, Branch Chair and asked to meet him prior to a whole staff meeting at Stopover in Glasgow. Gerry was informed that Quarriers had sent a form HR1 to the Government informing them that unless UNISON and EIS agree to changes in Terms and Conditions by the 16^th October (90 days) Quarriers would move to dismiss all 2019 members of staff and re-engage them on Quarriers new terms and conditions. This clearly changed everything. We took a decision that we had to let everyone know immediately what had happened and the best way to do this was by the website and also by informing the press. This way we could let everyone know as quickly as possible.

Thereafter we met every two weeks to see if we could move Quarriers at all. We managed to get some significant movement on a number of points but again it was clear the nightshift was the main element of savings Quarriers were looking for. One of the negotiators stated “it was like hitting your head off a brick wall”.  We decided to put out a consultation questionnaire to all members and it was clear from the members’ responses that they would allow some movement on Sick Pay, they would accept a pay freeze and increment freeze for this year only, but you, the members, were not keen on removing night shift enhancements. It also was also the view of the significant majority of members that they were not prepared to take any industrial action to defend their terms and conditions. So we went back to Quarriers with this in mind to see what further improvements on the original proposal we could achieve.

The end of September was looming closer and if we were to ballot members at all it would have to be soon so we could get the result before the 16^th October.

Throughout the negotiations Quarriers made it clear that the terms and conditions came as a package, they would not accept a deal that covered only parts of the package. In the final negotiations we secured further improvements to the proposed package. These negotiations went as far as we could push them till we got to the point where management were saying that we either reach agreement on this or they move to impose.

As stated it was not possible to separate any element of it therefore we had to ballot all members to see what they thought of the final package as a whole. The result came back as 74.8% to accept and 25.2% to reject.  And so the members had decided to accept by a large majority. It was then down to us the negotiators to see how we could best implement this change so that our members would not be adversely affected any more than they would be.

This was a difficult time for the negotiating team and if they could have changed anything they would have.

Now we must move forward but be assured that the fight is not over yet as if Quarriers position improves we will look to Quarriers to reinstate some of these losses.

 Proposed Changes to Final Salary Pension Scheme

At a meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee on 28 January 2010 Quarriers advised us that they were proposing to increase the employee contributions to the final salary pension scheme by 3%, although the impact of this would be offset somewhat by the introduction of ‘smart pensions’. Smart pensions basically is a more efficient way of paying pension contributions (see UNISON’s guide at http://www.unison.co.uk/pensions/pages_view.asp?did=6817 ) but there can be issues for certain staff, again the guidance advises of these groups and the potential impact.

UNISON has asked for a range of more information, not least of which is whether Quarriers intend to increase their employer contribution. Once UNISON has more information we intend to fully consult our members who are in the final salary scheme regarding the proposed contribution increase. We may also need to consult all members who are eligible to join the alternative pension scheme if the proposal is to roll out smart pensions to all.

UNISON has long argued with Quarriers that the existence of two schemes is divisive and believes the final salary scheme should be open to all. It is highly unlikely that Quarriers would agree to this in the current climate but we will keep pushing and in the interim seek to ensure the best pension deal for all staff.

Branch Secretary becomes National Chair.

UNISON has undergone a change to its structure which means that all of us who work in the Community and Voluntary Sector will be part of their own Service Group within UNISON. This will give us more say in our Union.

At the November meeting of UNISON’s National Community and Voluntary Sector Forum in London, Stephen Brown, Branch Secretary of UNISON’s Quarriers Branch, was elected as Chair of this influential committee. Stephen said “I am humbled that my fellow UNISON members think that I can do this job but I also consider this position as an honour for Quarriers members especially. We have never had a high position like this in UNISON before and for me I feel it is representative of the way UNISON thinks of Quarriers members.”