Make sure you get your vote on May 6

Don’t lose your vote, vote safely, sign up for a postal vote.

Life is busy and uncertain. Things can go wrong on the day and sometimes we miss the chance to have our say.

This is even more likely as the pandemic persists. You may be ill or have to self-isolate on polling day. You may be worried about going to a busy polling booth due to the virus. So don’t take the risk of losing your voice. Sign up for a postal vote and vote at your leisure from home.

Scottish Parliament decisions impact on those who use public services and those who deliver them, so it’s vital UNISON members have their say. You can use your vote on May 6 to save our NHS, help our schools, protect our communities and make a real difference to the people you care about.

There’s not long to go till election day so it’s important you make sure you’re registered to vote.

Registering is easy and can be done online . The deadline for registering and getting a vote in the election is midnight on April 19.

There are three ways to vote: in person, by post and by proxy. You can find out more about how you can vote here.

Anyone can get a postal vote as long as they apply by 5pm on April 6. Registering for a postal vote is easy and can be done online.

Make sure you register to vote and on May 6 use your vote for public services, and those who deliver them.

Pay and COVID Workforce Issues Update March 2021

Local Government (LG) Pay

Letter from COSLA

Please see above a copy of a letter we have received from COSLA following our representations about the lack of any offer at this time. It’s clear there is no movement until after the Scottish Government’s budget has been finalised.

We understand that a special meeting of COSLA leaders is being convened, after the third reading of the Scottish Government budget, on 12^th March with a meeting of the SJC Steering Group to be convened for the following week. We will as always keep you abreast of any developments.

LG Finance/Plug The Gap Campaign

As we enter the final weeks of budget negotiations we would ask that all members please do try to make another push on getting members to contact their MSPs about our campaign to PlugTheGap.

Education

The ‘Big Blether’ for support staff took place on Friday and was, we hope, really helpful for all who participated. The session was recorded for those who were not able to attend the session and it can be viewed here.
The FM announced this week that, subject to continued progress on suppressing the virus, all remaining primary school children are set to return to school full-time from 15 March, with all secondary pupils returning on a part-time basis from that date. Regulated childcare, including breakfast and after-school clubs, for primary pupils will also re-start on 15 March as part of the Phase 2 return. Updated schools safety guidance to support the phased return will be published next week though an advisory note from the Advisory Sub-Group on Education and Children’s Issues providing advice on school transport, outdoor learning, community transmission, the impact of school closures and staff safety and well-being was published today – you can read that here .

WIG Update

Long Covid – a special meeting is being set up to look in detail at how this should be treated for the purpose of attendance management procedures. We continue to argue that the principals in the Fair Work statement re no-detriment for Covid related absence should apply.
We raised again the issue of the £500 bonus payment and asked when H&SC staff employed by LG might expect to get it paid. Following receipt of legal advice and a ‘letter of comfort’ from the Scottish Government underwriting any legal liabilities COSLA Leaders have now apparently agreed to make the payment. COSLA are now finalising the guidance that will be issued with this and we have requested sight of it in advance. It is likely payments will be made in April but we’ll confirm as soon as we know.
Homeworking allowance – the JTUs had quite a heated exchange with COSLA on this issue. It followed rejection of a collective grievance in Glasgow where the council argued, amongst other things, that the payment of the HMRC £6pw allowance was a matter for national negotiation with COSLA and COSLA again seeking to argue that it was a matter for individual authorities.

Confidential mental health support for Health and social care staff
Health and social care professionals will have access to a new specialist service offering confidential mental health assessment and treatment.

The Workforce Specialist Service will be delivered by experts with experience in treating a range of issues such as stress, anxiety, depression or addiction, with a focus on the impact this may have on a person’s work.

A multidisciplinary team will support anyone who belongs to one of the regulated professions within health and social care.

It is the latest part of a package of resources available to these workers, including the National Wellbeing Hub, the National Wellbeing Helpline and specific psychological services provided by health boards at a local level. More information here.

Pay & COVID Workforce Issues Update

Pay 2021

The SJC Steering Group met with COSLA last week to discuss pay. To say we were disappointed by that meeting would be an understatement.

COSLA asked us to talk through our claim, which we did, despite having already done so when we presented it on the 16^th December.

Their response was to tell us that they had no mandate to make any offer at this stage and would come back to us once the Scottish Government’s budget had been finalised in March.

We have written to all Council Leaders to outline our concerns with this approach. We will keep you updated.

Workforce Issues Group Update

The Workforce Issues Group met on the 18^th February 2021 and covered a number of issues:

1. Schools return – It was noted that the Scottish Government had announced an additional £70m for local government to fund the mitigations necessary to facilitate the safe re-opening of schools. This money is solely for this purpose and does not address the wider LG funding gap which continues to exist.

Representations were made by several participants re the suitability of face coverings and face masks.

The inconsistency of approach across different local authorities was discussed.

Please also encourage members to sign up to the Big Blethers taking place over the coming weeks and submit questions on their concerns in advance – this is their opportunity to express those concerns and get answers to them direct from the decision makers.

Details here: https://professionallearning.education.gov.scot/learn/events/2021/february/public-health-blether-school-support-staff

A copy of the e-mail issued to all UNISON members in education earlier this week can be read here: https://www.unison-scotland.org/education-elc-re-opening-monday-22-february

2. Vaccinations – We pressed COSLA and Scottish Government officials re vaccination prioritisation for all staff working in ASN settings. They responded that they were limited to the JCVI prioritisation list and that there were issues re supply. Colleagues who had attended CERG that morning indicated that they understood LAs could apply a liberal approach and encouraged this. We will update when we have more.

3. Forthcoming Elections – we received a presentation from the Chair of the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, Malcolm Burr, on the safety measures being put in place to address our concerns about worker safety in the conduct of the forthcoming parliamentary elections. It was heartening to hear from SOLACE representatives that they shared the concerns expressed and had these uppermost in their minds in the planning and preparations they were putting in place. Malcolm stated that a number of measures were being undertaken including:

Expansion of postal voting to reduce the number of people turning up to polling stations.
A complete review and risk assessment of all polling stations, polling places and counting places to ensure they can be, and are, adapted for the mitigations that will be necessary to protect workers during the conduct of the poll.
A reduction in the number of electors allocated to each polling station (to 800) to reduce the numbers that will turn up to each.
A review of polling places to ensure that where they host multiple polling stations that there are separate entry/exit points for each station and where not expanding the number of polling places.
Emergency proxy voting to account for those who might have to self-isolate after the postal vote application deadline to ensure they don’t breach Covid isolation rules by turning up to a polling station.
Provision of PPE, additional cleaning materials, social distancing and screens for all polling stations and counting places. This will all take additional staff, which we flagged.
Directions provided to all returning Officers stating that there should be no overnight counting of ballots – given the additional mitigations that were being out in place for the count they needed to take account of the fact that the whole process will take much longer than normal and they don’t want people doing it when they are tired.
Restrictions on the numbers allowed in to the count, to only those with a statutory right to be there, and only allowing entry to those who attend a safety briefing in advance.
Additional use of the police and ‘Covid Marshalls’ to help enforce mitigations.

We asked that risk assessments were shared with local TU reps in advance and this was agreed. We will be requesting risk assessments from the local returning officer’s and we will flag up further concerns as members raise these with us.

It was also agreed that Malcolm Burr would give us another briefing closer to the elections so that we could raise any issues at that time.

Expansion of asymptomatic testing

Asymptomatic testing has now been expanded to cover close contacts of people who test positive for COVID. As well as being asked to isolate for 10 days, these individuals will also now be asked, as a matter of course, to get tested as well. And if they then test positive, their contacts will be traced, so that more chains of transmission can be broken.

More information here: https://www.gov.scot/news/close-contacts-to-be-offered-testing

To UNISON members in Education

You will be aware of the Scottish Government’s intention to push on with the full re-opening of Early Years and P1-P3 education services from 22 February.

The UNISON Stirling branch remains concerned about the pace and breadth of the plans despite the reassurances offered by the Scottish Government and the wider societal pressure to reopen schools and nurseries.

The UNISON Stirling branch is therefore continuing to pursue discussions with Stirling Council over how this will be managed including the need to maintain robust risk assessments and the associated mitigations. The national guidance on the two metre rule should be strictly adhered to and rooms/work areas must have signage stating how many adults are permitted. This means that the capacity of services will be reduced. Guidance on ventilation and the maintenance of “bubbles” must also be strictly adhered to across the city.

The Scottish Government have now confirmed that testing will be rolled out to everyone in stand-alone Early Years Establishments. We are pushing for the quick implementation of this.

Those who are clinically vulnerable should not be pressurised to attend the workplace. Those in the extremely clinically vulnerable group (shielding) should not attend the workplace.

The UNISON Stirling branch asks that members raise concerns on any of the above matters with their workplace steward or directly with the branch. The branch will give clear advice under health and safety regulations and Section 44 of the Employment Act on an individual and collective basis where necessary. We will raise matters on your behalf with local and senior management in Education and resist any breaches of agreed mitigations.

We will do all we can to protect members at this time.

Annual General Meeting 24 Feb

As you will be aware your UNISON branch AGM will be held a bit differently this year. Like most things we have gone virtual and the meeting will be held on the 24th February 12-2p.m, Papers and Teams link will be sent the day before (23rd February) to those who confirmed attendance.

As you will be aware your UNISON branch AGM will be held a bit differently this year. Like most things we have gone virtual and the meeting will be held on the 24^th February 12-2p.m, Papers and Teams link will be sent the day before (23^rd February) to those who confirmed attendance. To confirm attendance please

please reply by email to The Branch Secretary, Lorraine Thomson, thomsonl34s@stirling.gov.uk to confirm attendance and include your; name, workplace and current e-mail. AGM papers will be attached to the Teams video link once attendance is confirmed the day before the AGM. Should any member not attending the AGM wish a copy of the AGM papers please e-mail the branch directly.

Please reply by no later than 9a.m on Tuesday 23^rd February 2021, to allow us to send out the relevant papers and your link to the meeting.

You will have already received either an email and a letter about this. If you haven’t then please get in touch with the branch asap so that we can facilitate your participation in your branch democracy.

We are delighted that our new General Secretary Christina McAnea has agreed to come along and address our meeting to set out not only the unions key priorities but also how we face the challenge of the COVID pandemic. Christina is not only the first female General Secretary but also the first Scottish General Secretary, she has a long track record of fighting on behalf of our members and a track record of winning those fights.

We look forward to seeing you at the AGM