- Conference
- 2019 Water, Environment & Transport Conference
- Date
- 13 February 2019
- Decision
- Carried
This Conference notes with alarm the stance that the Environment Agency took in imposing the 2018 Pay Award on its employees, following the announcement by all trade unions who consulted their members that there was overwhelming rejection of the 2018 Pay Award.
The employer took little time to consider the news of rejection and simply responded by announcing it intended to impose the offer and set out the timetable for this to be enacted.
UNISON members in the Environment Agency have worked for an employer that traditionally respected the voice of trade union members. The employer previously respected the benefits of collective bargaining arrangements, jointly supported by the National Negotiating Group. The imposition of a pay award that UNISON members overwhelmingly rejected, without any recourse to further meaningful joint discussions, is a deplorable move and one that does not bode well for the future of industrial relations within the Environment Agency. It has the potential to herald an era where the employer simply imposes further changes to members pay, terms and conditions when UNISON members have rejected them.
This Conference supports the work of all UNISON representatives in the Environment Agency and calls upon the Service Group Executive to support those representatives, via the appropriate channels with the employer at local and national level, in opposing the imposition of changes to employment and in support of maintaining the jointly agreed collective bargaining arrangements that the employer has signed up to. Conference calls for the use of all appropriate UNISON communication channels to highlight this departure from collective bargaining arrangements that the Environment Agency has taken.