Category: News

We are writing to ask you to circulate as widely as you can –  this plea for members to raise with their MSPs the grave concerns UNISON has about the National Care Service Bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament. 

The proposed national care service will not be a system like the NHS. Instead what will be set up will fundamentally challenge the idea that public services should be publicly delivered.  We are asking all UNISON members to raise concerns with their MSPs – which can be done by clicking here.

The Scottish Government’s aim is that the National Care Service (NCS) will bring together social work, social care, and community health. These services won’t be delivered directly by public sector bodies – but purchased by new quangos (Care Boards) from the public, private and third sectors.

All legal responsibility for these services will be transferred from local government and, if Scottish Government ministers decide, from the NHS. The impact will be enormous.

This could mean 75 000 staff being transferred out of local government to new employers (as well as upheaval for an unknown number of staff in the NHS and other agencies). If the scheme goes ahead the way the Scottish Government intends Care Boards will receive 1/3 of the budget that currently goes to councils – this will have an impact on staff across the board as councils will require fewer staff in Finance, HR, facilities management, etc.

While this is happening, the profit-making that has done such damage to the care system won’t be stopped – and a whole range of other services; from children and families services to criminal justice social work and a lot in between will be opened to tendering and contracting.

More detail on the proposal can be found in this UNISON Brief Guide to the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill.

Keep up to date with UNISON Scotland’s campaign to kick profit out of care and defend public services on the UNISON Scotland website and by following @unisonncswatch on Twitter

Colleagues.  Please see attached Newsletter from the Learning & Organising Committee for circulation within your branch.  This will be a regular item to promote activities around our activist education programme.

Please feel free to send in any contribution that you might want to share in future publications. 

Today we received notice that the LG pay settlement will be implemented. UNISON is working to get this into member’s pockets before Christmas. Once we have further information and local discussions have been held to determine when and how parts of the agreement will be applied we will keep you updated at the soonest opportunity.

UNISON, and sister trade unions Unite and GMB, are threatening pull out local government school staff and refuse workers on strike again.

Strike action was suspended after UNISON members voted for an offer that was made to them by COSLA on 2nd September 2022.

Trade union strikes remain suspended but mandates remain live meaning UNISON can legally call their local government members back out on strike, again.

COSLA now claims that the elements of the original deal – an extra days leave and the payment of SSSC registration fees for those working in social work, social care, and early years – was only for one year not in perpetuity.

UNISON has written to COSLA today to say: “It is frankly outrageous that the draft pay circular sent to us on 7th October sought to time limit elements of the offer that had no time limitation on them in the original offer letter or in the discussions we had prior to it”

“That this remains unresolved should be a source of deep embarrassment. As has previously been advised our strike mandates remain live and we are all under increasing pressure from members, who are rapidly losing faith in their employer, to lift the strike suspensions if a resolution is not achieved quickly.”

Council staff are still waiting for their increased pay uplifts to be included in their pay packets.

Johanna Baxter, UNISON Scotland head of local government said: “This is appalling behaviour – either the employer did not even understand the offer they themselves were making or they did and are now trying to renegue on it before its even been implemented. Either way, it will be our members that suffer if they are allowed to get away with it.

We have made clear to the employer and the Scottish Government that our strike mandates remain live and all three trade unions are under increasing pressure from members, who are rapidly losing faith in their employer, to lift the strike suspensions if a resolution and call members out if a resolution is not achieved quickly.

Our members will rightly be questioning the value of COSLA if they cannot be trusted to draft an offer that they understand or uphold one that they do understand. ”

It should be a source of deep embarrassment to COSLA that more than six months since the pay implementation date and in the middle of the worst cost of living crises our country has seen, waiting on their pay rise”

Following weeks of repeated requests from us, COSLA finally produced a draft of the pay circular on 7^th October. 

It was immediately clear that COSLA was seeking to time limit elements of the offer that had no time limitation on them in either the discussions that took place or the offer letter they sent us (SSSC fees, the day’s annual leave).  On the basis that this draft did not reflect our understanding of the totality of the offer made, and which members voted for, we could not agree to the circular.

We called an urgent meeting with the employer, which was held on Tues 11^th Oct. 

UNISON wrote to them following the meeting reiterating the position of the TU side – that there was only a one-time limitation contained within the offer letter (which was on the First Aid allowance), the other elements they were now seeking to time limit were not time limited previously, that it was our joint understanding and that of our members that these elements were offered in perpetuity and that if they had a dispute with the Scottish Government re who was going to pay for them that was for them to resolve.   We reiterated the fact that our strike mandates remain live, strike action has only been suspended, and our position has always been that we will withdraw our notices of action once we are satisfied that the pay award has been implemented in full.

Numerous discussions took place last week where we continued to press COSLA to resolve these issues so that the pay uplift could be paid.  They sent an e-mail at the end of the week which inferred they shared our understanding of the offer but stated that they had to secure confirmation from the Scottish Government.  We responded that any dispute between COSLA and the Scottish Government was a matter for them and should not hold up the increase that our members are well overdue.

We have now escalated the matter to the COSLA Chief Executive.

Please be assured that we are doing everything we possibly can to get this resolved and the uplift paid as soon as possible.

Any members who are due to pay SSSC fees should continue to do so until the pay agreement has been implemented.  SSSC fees paid from 1^st April 2022 will have to be repaid to members and the employer needs to come up with a mechanism for doing this.

We will keep you in the loop with any developments.