Teaching assistants at two special education needs (SEN) schools in Essex have suspended planned strikes after receiving a new offer from employer Lift, says UNISON today. Workers at Columbus School & College in Chelmsford and Pioneer School in Basildon had been due to walk out on Monday (2 March) as they pushed for an allowance […]
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Cleaners, IT staff and customer service workers will join a lunchtime rally against sweeping job losses at the University of Essex in Colchester on Thursday, says UNISON. The rally, jointly organised by UNISON and the University and College Union (UCU), will call on bosses to stop plans to axe 400 jobs and close the university’s […]
New UNISON general secretary Andrea Egan will speak at a rally in Southend later this week calling on the University of Essex to scrap plans to cut 400 jobs, says UNISON today. Andrea will also urge the university to abandon proposals to shut down its Southend campus when she speaks on Thursday (5 February). UNISON […]
Essex Police plans to slash 110 support staff jobs, budget documents show. Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said government funding wasn’t enough to meet costs. “No-one would deny the enormous financial pressures facing the force, but it’s also impossible to deny that cuts on this scale will affect policing across Essex. “Support staff are the backbone […]
School staff supporting pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in Essex have announced a series of strikes over a lack of recognition and pay, UNISON says today. Teaching assistants, pastoral support workers and other support staff at three schools run by the Lift Schools multi-academy trust will walk out next Wednesday (28 January), and seven […]
Cambridge City Council signed up to a landmark charter on tackling racism today, reaffirming its commitment to equality in the workforce. The motion to sign up to UNISON’s Anti-Racism Charter was passed at Council on Thursday 9 October 2025, during Black History Month. UNISON’s Anti-Racism Charter commits employers to a raft of policies designed to […]
School staff supporting students with special educational needs (SEN) in Essex have voted overwhelmingly to strike over the lack of recognition and pay for their roles, UNISON says today. Teaching assistants, pastoral support workers and other support staff at three schools run by the Lift Schools multi-academy trust – Columbus School & College in Chelmsford, […]
Hundreds of job losses at the University of Essex will wreck students’ experiences and pile misery on staff, says UNISON today. The vice chancellor, Professor Frances Bowen, told staff today the Southend campus will shut and around 400 full-time posts will go from across the institution. That amounts to around a fifth of the current […]
Suffolk County Council must urgently fix a problem that means experienced staff could be paid as much as £6,000 less than new starters, says UNISON today. The glitch means some new joiners will end up earning more than their managers, says the union. The county’s libraries were brought back in house earlier this year as […]
School staff supporting children with special educational needs (SEN) in Essex are calling for recognition and pay to match their jobs, UNISON says today. Specialist workers at three schools run by the Lift Schools multi-academy trust – Columbus School & College in Chelmsford, Pioneer in Basildon and Lift Clacton – are asking to be paid […]
Mental health counsellors have been ‘gagged’ ahead of a week of strikes over pay and grading in Norfolk and Waveney, UNISON says today. The five-day walkout involves staff employed by Norfolk and Waveney Mind providing ‘talking therapy’ services for Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. Counsellors are being paid trainee rates despite being fully qualified, […]
A thousand cleaners, porters, caterers, maintenance workers and other facilities staff at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) face being sold out of the health service, UNISON warns today. The trust, which runs hospitals in Basildon, Chelmsford and Southend, wants to contract out all ‘soft facilities’ services – jobs such as cleaning, catering […]
Counsellors providing talking therapies at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust are back on strike in a dispute over pay and grading, says UNISON today. Despite being accredited counsellors supporting patients with complicated mental health problems, the staff are still receiving trainee rates of pay. The employer, charity Norfolk and Waveney Mind, is refusing to […]
Hertfordshire Constabulary’s plan to reduce police staff numbers is a false economy that will make it harder to fight crime, UNISON says today. The force is opening a voluntary redundancy scheme to most support staff – including investigators and administrators – as it tries to save £2.5m in 2024/25. In recent years, successive governments have […]
Essex Police has announced plans to close all but four of its remaining front country contact points. Counters at Basildon, Braintree, Clacton and Harlow will close, while the force will remove police presence from shared counters in Maldon and Saffron Walden. It will leave only the desks at Chelmsford, Colchester, Grays and Southend open. Eastern […]