- Conference
- 2008 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 13 December 2007
- Decision
- Carried
Conference recalls that at the Health Conference at Gateshead in 2006 a resolution was passed concerning the position of UNISON members, most commonly working in learning disability services, who had transferred from the NHS to voluntary sector providers.
Conference regrets that little progress appears to have been made in implementing this resolution, in contrast to the similar position of members transferred to major private sector providers of ancillary services. These members feel they have been forgotten by the union.
In 2005 our objective was about getting these members the benefit of improved terms and conditions through Agenda for Change. Now the situation has got worse, with the previous Trust and Whitley pay scales that their TUPE conditions are linked to being frozen, and employers using this to deny cost of living pay increases. Where increases have been agreed they are an annual ‘one off’ fix which is at the risk of undermining TUPE.
Conference calls for the same attention, commitment and resources to be given by the union to these members as was given to the private contractor members campaign, starting with a consultation with affected branches (and most non-ambulance or acute hospital only branches will have these members) on the nature and scale of the problems. This should be regarded as urgent and be done so that it can be reported to the SGE meeting at the end of September 2008 and an action plan agreed there and notified to all branches.
Two years since the issue was first raised the union must start taking these members’ problems seriously.