Staff at Huntingdonshire District Council are threatening to take a week of strike action later this month as part of an ongoing dispute over pay, says their union UNISON today. Earlier this year, the council gave its employees a pay rise of 4% plus a one-off payment of £1,000. Then last month, council managers made […]
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Support staff at the University of Bedfordshire have won an extra five days’ paid holiday, says UNISON today. It follows a long campaign by the union to highlight what is says is the unfair difference in annual leave entitlement between support staff, who work in professional services, and academics. From September, full-time professional services staff […]
The East of England Probation Service has become the first government body to sign a new charter aimed at combatting racism in the public sector, UNISON announces today. UNISON’s Anti-Racism Charter commits the organisation and its leaders to a range of pledges designed to prevent racial bias. It includes championing a racially diverse workforce, having […]
Cleaners and caterers at an NHS mental health unit in Ipswich will stage a protest on Thursday over the “poverty wages” paid by contractor G4S, UNISON announces today. Most G4S staff at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) are only paid the minimum wage of £10.42 an hour — £1 an hour less than […]
Refuse workers in Harlow have called off the threat of strike action after voting today to accept a 10.1% pay rise. The deal means that staff employed by contactor Veolia will also enjoy improved sick pay. It takes drivers’ pay over £15 an hour and loaders up to nearly £13. Veolia had originally offered staff […]
Refuse workers, customer service assistants and planning officers at Huntingdonshire District Council have voted to strike over pay, UNISON said today. The Cambridgeshire council has imposed a pay rise of 4% plus a one-off payment of £1,000. As the strike ballot opened last month, bosses made money available for a further one-off lump sum but […]
Employers can no longer use agency staff to fill in for striking workers during industrial action after the High Court ruled that government legislation introduced last year is unlawful, says UNISON today. The important judgment handed down this morning follows successful judicial review proceedings lodged by UNISON and other TUC unions last autumn. For more […]
Liz Davidson reports back from UNISON’s national Labour Link Forum
Government ministers should rethink their knee-jerk rejection of a trial into the four-day week at South Cambridgeshire Council and wait for the evidence, UNISON says today. Local government minister Lee Rowley has written to the council blocking an extension of the “experiment” into a reduced working week, according to media reports at the weekend. The […]
Support staff at a Sudbury primary school have called off further strikes after accepting a new deal saving most of their jobs, UNISON announces today. Two dozen classroom assistants and midday supervisors at Pot Kiln Primary took three days of strikes in April and May after the school announced plans to sack 15 staff to […]
Eleesha Kyriazis was “completely taken aback” when she heard she’d won the award as Young Activist of the Year at the 2023 UNISON Eastern One Weekend. “I had no idea I had even been nominated until a few days before and even that was a massive shock,” she tells us. “It’s quite heart-warming to be […]
Southend school staff have fought off changes to holiday pay calculations that could have left them thousands of pounds a year worse off. Around 350 staff in community schools would have seen their pay drop by between £40 and £2,800 each year after Southend Council proposed changes to the formula for calculating holiday pay for […]
West Suffolk Hospital workers are planning to hold a protest this week against the reintroduction of staff parking charges, UNISON has announced today. Staff have not had to pay for parking since the start of the pandemic, but the trust wants to bring in charges at a flat rate of £2 a day from 1 […]
An analysis of police financial forecasts has revealed that police forces in the East of England could face a budget shortfall of over £110 million by 2026, potentially putting public safety at risk, says UNISON today. The data, based on medium-term financial plans submitted by individual police forces to their local police and crime panels, reveals […]
UNISON has welcomed Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s decision to take maintenance of its social housing stock back under direct control. The newly formed cabinet announced this week that repairs and refurbishment work for its 5,000 homes would be transferred from Norse to a council-owned company by September 2024. The agreement with Great Yarmouth Norse, which […]