UNISON Quarriers Branch
Response to Quarriers Proposals on Pay Cuts
On Wednesday 27th April Quarriers Executive met with UNISON Quarriers Branch Negotiators at an emergency JCC. At this meeting we were informed that Quarriers proposed to cut our Pay and Conditions.
On Friday 29th April at 2 minutes past 5 Quarriers emailed their proposals for Cuts to our members’ Pay. As we see it the rationale for these cuts is threefold:
Whilst many people can see the logic in this argument the Executive are forgetting something even more important. If it were not for the frontline workers who work so hard and are so dedicated there would not be an organisation of this quality.
Over the last three years, following ballots, our members have accepted cuts in their Terms and Conditions. Night shift workers have lost 3 hours per shift enhancement; everyone lost 4 public holidays and reluctantly accepted cuts to the enhancement for the four remaining days. Members accepted reluctantly to reduce Sick Pay entitlement.
All this was to help Quarriers achieve a more competitive place in the market and to protect jobs. NOTE: Each time the reason for the cuts was to make us more competitive, and now Quarriers Executive have come back again wanting more.
Living costs
Whilst our members accepted these cuts in their income living costs still rose.
Every measure of inflation has risen in the year from February 2010 to February 2011. CPI (Consumer Prices Index) which is the Government’s preferred measure rose from 3% to over 4%.
Mervyn King the Governor of the Bank of England has admitted that real wages have fallen by 12% over the past year. “Money wages normally rise faster than prices. But the opposite was true last year, so real wages fell sharply,” Mr King said “As a result, in 2011 real wages are likely to be no higher than they were in 2005. One has to go back to the 1920’s to find a time when real wages fell over a period of six years.”
A survey by the Office of National Statistics showed that the average worker is £750 worse off due to the rising cost of living. Inflation, currently at 5.1%, is climbing high on basic essentials such as food, travel and fuel that low paid workers spend most of their money on.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, middle income workers earning between £20,000 and £35,000 a year will face a triple impact of the UK government’s austerity measures. Tax rises and benefits cuts for this group are likely to reduce incomes by a further 3 to 4 percent in absolute terms.
As well as this the IFS estimates that in the years from 2008 to 2011 real household incomes will have fallen by 1.6% rather than rising by 5% as would be expected. This would be the biggest drop in real living standards since 1980 to 1983.
A joint survey by PCS and UNISON, which is to be published soon, of more than 10,000 public sector workers, has confirmed the devastating impact of Government Cuts from Westminster. The report shows that a third of respondents have debts of £10,000 or more. As money coming in has grown tighter and the cost of living has risen, 71% have cut down spending on food, 33% on healthcare such as dentists, 22% on children’s footwear and clothes, 47% cut down on exercise while 89% reduced spending on going out.
Those at the bottom of the pay scales also face cuts in housing benefit, disability living allowances for family members, council tax benefits and other welfare payments over the next year or two. Childcare cuts alone will cost families £780 a year. In April workers face higher national insurance contributions – an extra 1% taken from their wages from most.
Those on lowest incomes will get hit the hardest – 77% of the lowest income sectors in the country were unable to afford adequate fuel at the last count. Save the Children has calculated that the poorest families pay more for fuel and other basic goods and services than better off families in the UK. This Annual Poverty Premium can amount to more than £1280 for a typical low income family.
Even large UK companies are worried about the impact the fall in real wages will have on the wider economy. Richard Brasher, Chief executive of Tesco’s in the UK said “the inexorable rise of fuel prices” as well as higher utility bills and taxes was costing households an extra £12 a week – the equivalent of a 5% rise in income tax for poorer families, creating a real challenge for consumer confidence.
QUARRIERS MORALS AND ETHOS
Quarriers was founded 140 years ago by William Quarrier. This was a man who had seen poverty at first hand and he overcame this with “hard work, determination and Christian faith” (www.quarriers.or.uk/heritageandeducation)
Many of our colleagues do work very hard and are extremely dedicated. They work with determination to care for our Service Users. So that part of William Quarriers ethos remains. But what of his Christian faith? There are many people working for Quarriers of differing faiths and some with none. William Quarrier as history shows was a Christian. Christianity comes from a belief that Jesus Christ was God’s Son sent to Earth to live as a Man, die on a cross and rise again to redeem everyone from their sins. No matter whether you have this belief or not William Quarrier, our founder did. Here’s what Jesus said about work:
“And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the labourer deserves his wages” Luke 10 v7
“No bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff, for the labourer deserves his food. “ Matthew 10 v10
I do not see where it says the labourer deserves his food but take 30% of it away so you can be profitable next year.
Here is Quarriers mission statement:-
“Our vision is of a just and accepting society, where everyone can participate and enjoy life.
Quarriers’ commitment to quality means that our highly trained staff have the expertise and experience to give every person we work with the support that best suits their individual needs and likes, whatever their stage of life.
Quarriers is a charity with its roots in Scotland aiming to work across the UK and to share best practice more broadly.
Quarriers people are warm, supportive and caring. We are committed to getting things done in a professional and positive way, and to ensuring that the people we work with get the most out of life.”
Quarriers’ vision is indeed of a JUST and accepting society. What is Just about cutting the pay of the longest serving employees by as much as 30%? What is just about cutting the poorest workers pay by 3% taking them below minimum wage? What is Just about cutting the Chief Executive and Directors pay by 3% (approximately £3,000 and £2,000 respectively) whilst cutting Support Workers pay by £4,500? The Oxford dictionary defines Just as:
based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair:
a just and democratic society
Are these cuts morally right or fair? What is moral about taking money from families, forcing people to consider selling their homes, making people choose whether to eat or not, because these are the choices our members will have to make if Quarriers impose these cuts.
Quarriers says it is committed to quality. The mission statement refers to our highly trained staff! Are Quarriers talking about those Support Workers who have worked hard, studied hard, paid for part of their HNC or SVQ with their own time? Are these the same Support Workers who were told when they qualified, which they have to for registration purposes in the future, that they would move to the qualification bar as a reward for their hard work? Yes they are.
Approximately 4 years ago Quarriers decided to introduce a quota for Support Assistants. These would be posts where people would not need to gain a qualification, who would not have the same level of responsibility as a Support Worker and would be paid less as a result. Now a Support Worker could earn the same, not by raising the Support Assistants wages which would be moral, equal and Just, but by lowering the Support Workers wages. Why should a Support Worker now strive for qualifications when they don’t need to? Where is the quality?
Quarriers people are warm, supportive and caring. Yes they are. They are warmhearted but with these cuts they won’t be warm in their own homes. Utility companies are predicting a 20% rise in fuel prices this year. With this and a 30% cut in wages our members will not be able to be warm, they will be cold in their own homes.
Quarriers talk every year in the Annual Report about how much it values the Staff. Do these Pay proposals show how much Quarriers values the staff?
If you were to go to Quarriers website, or look at Quarriers headed notepaper, you will notice the top line is QUARRIERS – Transforming lives. I think every frontline worker can certainly agree with this now. If these proposals come into effect every worker, their families and loved ones lives will be transformed, not for the better but for the worse.
On the 13th May 2011 we told Quarriers Executive that their proposals were unacceptable and we said they should take them away, rip them up and start again.
We repeat this in this paper again.
THESE CUTS ARE NOT FAIR, NOT MORAL, NOT JUST, NOT EQUAL and are NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Signed on behalf of every UNISON member in Quarriers
Stephen Brown
Branch Secretary
UNISON Quarriers Branch
25th May 2011