Unison Glasgow Clyde & CVS Branch 

NHS union UNISON has secured a commitment from NHS employers across Scotland that they will enter into discussions with the union at a Scottish level over the issue of holiday pay claims which could benefit thousands of UNISON members.

On 22 May 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found, in the case of UNISON member Joe Lock v British Gas,  that a worker’s 20 days statutory annual leave pay should include commission payments if these were part of normal pay.

The Employment Tribunal will decide how UK law will now be interpreted in light of this decision. It is likely that whatever decision is reached by the Employment Tribunal will be appealed through the higher courts, so it may be a long time before any payments are received.

If members are regularly paid payments for time or activities at work that are not paid when they take annual leave (e.g. commission payments, other supplements, bonuses or overtime payments) then there may be entitlement to increased holiday pay in future and back pay.

Across NHS Scotland UNISON has raised the issue locally and the agreement to discuss the issue with employers at a Scottish level means that in Health the union is confident that an agreement can be reached which prevents the need for lengthy legal action.

UNISON NHS Glasgow Clyde and CVS Branch Secretary Cathy Miller said, “Once again UNISON is delivering for our members across NHS Scotland. Of course the detail of the negotiations will need to be carefully considered and if necessary UNISON will litigate, but seeking a collective agreement across Scotland is quicker than going to the law and will ensure that our members get what they are entitled without the hassle of litigation and expensive legal fees.”

Cathy Miller has confirmed that NHSGGC and CVS has formally raised the issue with NHS Glasgow and Clyde Health Board and has lodged a formal grievance for all UNISON members.

Commenting attempts by some private law firms to cash in on holiday pay claims, Cathy said “Private law firms are in this for the money with some of them charging up to 20% of any settlement fee. They won’t fix the issue going forward and they are only interested in people who make a claim with them. UNISON is negotiating to secure a deal that will ensure everyone is treated properly and fixes this for the future.  UNISON members get legal advice and assistance free and get to keep all of the value of any settlement when we litigate.”

UNISON is calling for better guidance for NHS staff (in particular nurses in the community) who are being asked to provide evidence and statements in civil court cases.

Professional Officer for Nursing, Una Provan said, "More and more our nursing members in the community are receiving citations for civil court cases and are asked to give evidence about a patients health and well being. UNISON is concerned that the current guidance is not suitable, sufficiently clear or well enough understood and as a result Nursing staff are at risk of breaching both the NMC Code or the rules about giving evidence in court.

The union has written to NHS bosses in NHSGGC with our concerns.

UNISON has written to NHS Glasgow and Clyde Chief Executive, Robert Calderwood in the strongest terms expressing concern and anger that the Boards Policy is “draconian and heavy handed” after NHS bosses told staff that they can’t smoke on their tea breaks – even if they go off site.

The union has also called for a discussion amongst NHS unions at a meeting next week

OPEN LETTER TO ROBERT CALDERWOOD, CHIEF EXEC, NHSGGC

Dear Robert,

NHS GLASGOW AND CLYDE – NO SMOKING POLICY

I refer to the implementation of the NHS Glasgow and Clyde – No Smoking Policy which has been articulated in recent Core Briefs and Staff Newsletter.

From the outset let me be clear, UNISON accepts and acknowledges that smoking is bad for your health and the impact of smoking in Scotland is such that it is a major public health issue.

However UNISON is not supportive of the most recent policy implementation and roll out which appears to have taken a particularly draconian twist.

In particular the key points of the policy as advised in Staff Newsletter:

·         Staff are not allowed to smoke when on duty and can only smoke during unpaid official breaks – this means that staff are not allowed to smoke during tea breaks as these are paid for. You can only smoke during your unpaid meal break and this MUST be off hospital grounds.

·         Repeated breaches f the policy will be dealt with through the disciplinary process.

Are of particular concern to UNISON and our members who have been phoning and emailing UNISON to raise their concerns.

We are concerned that this policy has a direct impact on the way that staff live their lives and go about their work. We believe that the policy has such a significant impact that it should have been agreed at the Area Partnership Forum (we do not believe that it has been) and that in rolling it out in he particularly aggressive manner – the Board should have at least spoken to trade unions and senior officials by way of a discussion – heads up.

More importantly we are disappointed that the Board have chosen to put significant resources into the application of this particular policy when other policies which have a direct impact of staff health and safety and patient care seem to be ignored.

It is in our opinion no surprise that repeated staff surveys show that stress in on the rise, bullying is a significant issue for staff and violence against staff is still a major problem. Add this to your Boards failure to pay staff properly when on leave and major concerns about staffing levels and it is little wonder that our members are angry, disillusioned and down right fed up with NHS Glasgow and Clyde. (as borne out by the embarrassingly low levels of responses to staff surveys).

As I have said, UNISON is supportive of reasonable measures to help staff tackle addictions and to improve their lifestyle choices.

However we do not support this draconian and heavy handed approach. We certainly do not support wasting valuable time and resource ‘disciplining’ staff who smoke during breaks be they paid or unpaid.

It is noteworthy that a similar bully boy approach was taken over the Boards Car Parking Policy and as expected it has not produced a single positive result.

UNISON therefore requests that the policy is rescinded pending further discussion and that you give us your personal assurance that NHS resources will not be squandered pursuing smokers.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Matt McLaughlin

Regional Organiser

UNISON

UNISON has called for a full and detailed review of holiday pay as it became clear that many nursing staff have not been paid the correct holiday pay.

UNISON believes that nursing staff who are on rotational shifts may not be getting the correct holiday pay.

Branch Secretary Cathy Miller said, “The employers are all over the place on this issue and it is simply not acceptable. UNISON wants them to step up and take some responsibility for this mess, if they do not we will consider legal action.”

Assistant Branch Secretary Frances Lyall said, "How does it save money to expect a highly paid and experienced nurse to manage waiting lists or input pay information into a computer. The mess over holiday pay is an example of what happens when people make cuts, simply to save money. Nursing staff should be free to speak with and provide care for patients. Admin support staff should be managing systems and inputting information, that is what they are skilled to do."

The union does not think the problem extends to all staff or non nursing staff.

Branch Secretary Cathy Miller has confirmed that UNISON will ballot NHS members (employed by NHSGGC) over proposals to remove one of the existing (2) public holidays from staff at Easter.

Cathy said, "NHS Glasgow and Clyde have said that they want to move one of the public holidays staff have at Easter and move it to an as yet undisclosed alternative day. They claim that this will assist with the management of services because long weekends cause too much disruption to some theatre lists.”

Responding to the proposal Cathy said, “UNISON members have already told us that they share my anger over this latest idea by NHS bosses. Easter is traditionally a time for families and this proposal puts that family time under attack. The answer to delivering waiting list targets is to properly fund and resource our NHS not steal away hard working staff from their families.”

UNISON is balloting all members on a ‘consultative’ basis and is recommending that they REJECT the employers proposal.

Recent changes in the law around disability and legal decisions have encouraged UNISON to demand that employers introduce a Disability Leave Policy.

Disabled Members Officer Bob Gibson said, “All too often disabled staff are invited to attend formal absence management meetings where the absences are clearly related to the employees disability. In recent years UNISON have had to get tough with managers who thought that it was okay to discipline staff who were off work illness related directly to their disability.

"The introduction of a Disability Leave Policy would mean that any leave taken in relation to the employees disability would not be recorded as and would be distinct from any sick leave (not to separate disability leave from sick leave may discriminate against a disabled worker). Disability leave also includes time when an employee is well but absent from work due to their disability e.g. hospital and doctors appointments, hearing aid tests and recovery time from treatments.”

What is disability leave? The law states that all disabled employees are entitled to ‘reasonable adjustments’ where the physical working environment or practices place the disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared with a person who is not disabled. introduction of a Disability Leave Policy for our disabled colleagues would allow for this reasonable adjustment to be facilitated. Disability leave is paid time off work for a reason related to someone’s disability. Typically this would be for treatment, rehabilitation or assessment related to their disability. The introduction of this policy would provide disabled employees with reasonable paid time off work for reasons related to their impairment. It would also help local managers better understand the rights of disabled workers.

Bob added, “UNISON NHS Glasgow Clyde and CVS Branch are committed to discussions with your employer to seek the introduction of a Disability Leave Policy and to remove this clear discrimination. If you are disabled and feel that you might benefit from disability leave ask your manager and talk to your local UNISON steward.”

UNISON has used the annual review of the workforce plan to speak out about a number of issues that affect staff and patients. In a letter to the Chief Exec, the union said, 

"

Robert Calderwood

Chief Exec

The work being done around this years Workforce Plan has given UNISON the opportunity to focus on a number of strategic issues which we think are not only important, but could be critical in the way that we take things forward in the next few years.

Setting aside the technical comments and observations we have made concerning the workforce plan, I wanted to take the time to raise some of the more strategic issues directly with you.

The Workforce Plan makes references to workforce tools, but we are not convinced by these or their application at the coal face. As you know this has been a long running point of contention between UNISON and the Board. However as we move into another round of cuts and re organisation, we believe that it is important that we develop a clear meachanism and structure for agreeing safe staffing levels. Critically we believe that it is essential for the safety of patients and staff, that they, the staff are confident that staffing levels and appropriate and safe.

On centralisation - the draft workforce plan (maybe because it is not a workforce planning issue per say) ignores the human challenges that the new SGH (and other centralisation programmes) presents.

Staff travelling from all over Central West Scotland means that the transport links and parking need to be better and facilities improved in that regard. To fail to do so leads to specific workforce challenges which will have an impact on their ability to meet their plan. It is simply not good enough, for people at the top of NHSGGC to simply take the view that staff should not bring their cars to work or as has been suggested in the past – that they can move to Govan!

In our opinion the other major current impediment around workforce planning and change remains the inability of NHSGGC to be consistent and reasonable.

The idea that we can have different 'selection criteria' across the Board every time we try to achieve a workforce change is madness. It leads to too much lost time at a local level as stewards and managers argue about what should be in criteria and how criteria should be used.

UNISON is also worried about the issue of reasonable offer of employment and travel. There seems to be a prevailing attitude that as long as NHSGGC offers a member of staff a job, then that offer is reasonable. There seems to be no regard for personal circumstances, travel and profession.

e.g. recently we had a band 2 employed at VOL who was offered a post at Gartnavel ...the member lives in Arrochar and the 'offer' added hours to her working day. Similarly I have a 4 hour band 4 based at IRH who is expected to work now at SGH - it takes her 2 hours to travel to and from work (if she makes her connections).

From what I can see this is the prevailing attitude amongst some groups of HR and managers. Again maybe not an issue for the Workforce Plan, but I think these needs to be some recognition that the changes they are implementing is complex and has significant challenges which may not be covered within the framework of existing terms, conditions and policies.

I would also take this opportunity to raise again our concern about the Boards practice of letting staff leave under cover of a compromise agreement. It is clear that in many circumstances this is an alternative to redundancy and it is simply not palatable that the Board are making staff redundant and then with holding their contractual payments.

More relevant to UNISON is the existence of the ‘slush fund’ to facilitate these terminations. Clearly the NHSiS has a specific position re redundancy and we would I hope all welcome that. UNISON would argue that this fund should be used to find ways to retain and retrain staff within the employment if NHSGGC. Sadly there is little evidence of NHSGGC taking an ‘employability’ approach to the challenges that we all face."

To Whom it May Concern

On behalf of our members within our branch of Unison NHS Glasgow Clyde CVS and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital we feel that  we need to contact you on their behalf regarding the above proposals at the Southern General Hospital.  We have 20,000 members and are the largest Branch in the UK  and obviously we take our members concerns seriously, especially when it comes to their Health and Safety. 

As you are probably aware the Southern General Hospital is going to be one of the largest hospitals in Europe when all building works are completed. It will have 3 multi-storey car parks, however that is some years into the future.  At present there is  only one multi-storey car park and parking on site is at a premium.  Applications by staff for parking permits are very limited and revised Car Parking Policy issued by the health board a few months ago makes it clear that any member of staff not holding a permit will be liable to disciplinary action if their car is parked on site for more than 4 hours. 

As I am sure you will realise , many teams of hospital staff work 12 hour shifts, and as they have to work unsocial hours, due to the start and finishing times a car be the only option to get them to work on time.  This can make parking on the site near enough impossible and it is neither practical or possible for  staff to leave the workplace to move their car during the working day, if they were lucky enough to find a parking space under the 4hr limit.  That is if in fact if there was anywhere on site to move it to.  Recently the new Laboratory and Mortuary block opened and staff were being transferred from other six other NHS hospital sites in Glasgow and Clyde to work at the Southern General.   At their induction they were clearly told that the only place they could park their cars was in the surrounding streets unless they had a permit to park on site. 

Adding to this, the bus service is severely curtailed and would certainly not meet the needs of the service. The nearest underground being Govan is a considerable walk for staff and certainly not a safe option especially early morning or late evenings.     

We would be grateful if some common sense around this issue prevails for the safety of our members as the only options that would be open to them would be to either walk to and from the nearest underground or to an area where a more routine bus service is provided.

CATHY MILLER

UNISON NHS GLASGOW CLYDE & CVS

BRANCH SECRETARY 

Whether it's a health and safety campaign, fighting service cuts or campaigning to secure a Scottish Living Wage. NHS Glasgow Clyde and CVS Branch are at the forefront of the unions efforts to help workers organise themselves for a better future.

Local stewards are working everyday across our membership area on a number of campaigning issues. Listed below are some of our current campaigns that you can become involved in.

Frontline

Public Sector Pensions

Health and Safety

Scottish Living Wage