SJC PAY CAMPAIGN
BRANCH BRIEFING
The result of the Local Government Pay Ballot
was announced on 12 November and resulted in a narrow acceptance
of the 2 year offer. The full result is as follows;
Voting Yes to accept the offer; 21,725 (51.15%)
Voting No to reject the offer; 20,749 (48.85%)
The Local Government Committee met on the afternoon
of the 12th to consider the outcome and also agreed
some follow up action and comments;
The Committee recognised that the vote to accept
was a by a very narrow margin and that there was a significant
number of members who voted to reject. The closeness of the
result reflects the difficult decision that members were required
to make and that the offer from the employers was not a good
offer given the current economic circumstances. The return
in the ballot 44%, is a better return than that of the industrial
action ballot 36%, but it also indicates that members care
about pay and that pay is important to them. The Committee
agreed that a letter of thanks should be sent to all members
thanking them for their support and participation throughout
the campaign. Members should receive their letter next week.
We should not lose sight of the fact that the
value of the offer has improved considerably since negotiations
started in February this year due entirely to the successful
campaign that we organised and to the two successful days
of action taken by the members. The Local Government Committee
also want to acknowledge the tremendous work done by branches
locally in supporting this dispute despite the many other
pressures branches had to deal with.
In terms of the other trade unions, Unite have
rejected the offer but the GMB result will not be known till
14th November at the earliest. Whilst it is disappointing
that we will not have a joint trade union position to put
to the employers, as the largest trade union we will be writing
to the employers outlining our result and seeking implementation
of the offer at the earliest opportunity. This correspondence
to the employer will also remind them of their commitment
to jointly examine the issue of low pay within local government
and that UNISON wish to commence these discussions early in
the new year.
There is no doubt that we have to learn lessons
from this campaign and the Local Government Committee are
keen to do this in a robust and transparent manner. The Committee
have agreed to establish a short life working group to examine
all aspects of the campaign and make a report to the Annual
Meeting of the Local Government Group in April next year.
Membership of the group will be drawn from the Local Government
Committee, directly from branches and from key staff members.
As part of the information gathering exercise to inform the
group, all branches will receive a questionnaire prior to
the Local Government Networking Meeting on 6th
December highlighting some key headline areas and asking for
comments and responses. The Networking Meeting will be the
first opportunity to consider these responses and have more
detailed discussion within small working groups.
The Local Government Committee acknowledges
that the campaign has identified our strengths and weaknesses
and that during the months of July, August, September and
October over 5,000 new members have been recruited. Again
this is a tremendous effort by branches however in the months
ahead and in preparation for future pay campaigns we require
to retain these members and build on our organisation and
development to ensure that the next time we are even stronger.
It was also agreed that monies donated by branches
and individuals to the Strike Industrial Action Fund would
be returned.
Dates for your diary; June 2009 start of the
Branch Consultation period on the formulation of the claim
for 2010!!!!!
