Our moment to demand change for working people
This year’s TUC congress will be a virtual one – and will be open to everyone.
On the mornings of Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 September, trade union members from across the UK will discuss the huge impact of coronavirus on working lives <read more>
Dave Prentis, our current General Secretary, has announced he is to retire on 31 December 2020. An election will be held to appoint a new general secretary.
The union’s National Executive Council at a meeting on 23 July 2020, agreed a timetable for the election: full details and procedures
Voting: Any ballot will run from 28 October to 27 November 2020. Any results will be issued on 11 January 2021.
Eligibility to vote: All members, including retired members (but not honorary members), who are on the union’s membership register as of 28 July 2020, will be entitled to vote in this election.
Members not on the membership register on 28 July 2020 will not be able to vote.
Back in May we sent out a survey asking our disabled members about their experiences of the Sickness Absence Procedure at SHU. We were pleased to receive a very strong response.
The survey showed that over half of the respondents were told at some point by their line manager that their sickness absence levels were too high. It also showed that over 70% of respondents had been put on an informal sickness absence monitoring plan by their manager for disability related absence. Over 40% of respondents felt that their managers hadn’t taken into account their impairment before putting informal sickness absence monitoring in place.
The Formal ‘Sickness Absence Procedure’
Over half of the respondents who had been entered into informal sickness absences procedure were progressed onto the formal Sickness Absence Procedure. Over half of these members felt that their disabilities were not taken into account by the decision to escalate to formal proceedings, and half also received a formal warning or ‘improvement notice’.
Most of these members requested reasonable adjustments via the process, with mixed success. Only half agreed that reasonable adjustments were put in place effectively for them, and only 35% agreed that the Sickness Absence Procedure was supportive and helped them to improve their sickness absence.
A majority also felt that the absence targets given to them were not achievable. This supports our view that where appropriate, adjusted sickness absence targets should be used to support disabled staff members.
Overall, while some members felt that SHU had treated them fairly, others described their experience of the SHU sickness absence policies as inflexible, and overly concerned with presenteeism. Some members also felt that the policies did not account clearly enough for the different needs of disabled and non-disabled staff members.
Disability Passports
We also took the opportunity to ask all members who responded to the survey about their experience of the ‘Disability Passport’. Only 15% of respondents had been approached by their manager to create a passport and to record the reasonable adjustments they require.
We would like to see managers utilising the disability passport more for employees. You can find more information about the disability passport here.
Thank you to everybody who took the time to fill in the survey, and we will continue to work towards better support for disabled members.
Ana Yousaf & Rich Nind
In May our branch agreed to make a £400 donation to each of the following charities and appeals:
Sheffield Hallam Emergency Coronavirus Appeal
These charities and appeals have provided direct support for people affected by the pandemic, and continue to do so. Our donation to the Sheffield Hallam Coronavirus Appeal went directly to supporting our students with food vouchers, equipment and other urgent needs to allow them to continue their study. The S2 Foodbank provides food parcels for households in need in the South Sheffield area, and has been active during the pandemic delivering food to households who have lost their income or access to other services. Care4Calais (https://care4calais.org/) has continued to provide food and support to refugees in Calais throughout the crisis, even as NGO’s and the French state removed their support and funding.
We have received thanks and updates from all of the charities and appeals. The Sheffield Hallam appeal has distributed over £700,000 since the beginning of the crisis, and the fund has remained open over the summer to support students continuing to study. The S2 Foodbank continues to experience high demand and expects even greater demand in the coming months, as the Covid-19 crisis continues and Universal Credit is rolled out in the local area. Care4Calais volunteers are providing urgent support for refugees affected by a large-scale eviction by French authorities in July, which saw tents and belongings destroyed and many refugees deported to Marseille and Spain.
On 19th August, members of UNISON at the University of Sheffield celebrated after senior managers announced a dramatic U-turn by rescinding their threat to fire & rehire 8,000 members of staff.
The move comes after seven weeks of campaigning from the trade union UNISON, who represent non-academic staff on campus. UNISON was angered by the issuing of a Section 188 notice for every member of staff that could have seen workers being dismissed and re-engaged on inferior contracts. This is a tactic which has recently been used by employers such as Centrica, Asda and British Airways.
At the time of the announcement, local union officials described the proposals as: “Premature and strategically naive.” They pointed out that the University of Sheffield enjoys reserves of nearly £1billion and remains one of the most popular destinations to study amongst students.
The university had entered into consultation with unions in July with a view to reducing contractual terms and conditions in an attempt to save £100 million. The proposals included voluntary redundancies, pay freezes, cancellation of promotions and a reduction in hours and salary.
Despite the threat to ‘fire and rehire’, the University of Sheffield UNISON branch entered talks in good faith with a view to finding a resolution. They also ran a superb campaign, utilising support from local MPs, students and the community. Despite lockdown restrictions, they spoke to members regularly as record numbers joined the branch. As a result of the campaign run by UNISON, on Wednesday 19th August the University of Sheffield dropped the plans.
Leonie Sharp, Regional Organiser at UNISON said: “As the recession starts to take hold, we have seen a number of high profile employers use the threat of ‘fire and rehire’ in an attempt to reduce workers’ terms and conditions. This victory at the University of Sheffield shows what can be done when workers stick together and campaign for the outcome they want.
“All credit needs to go to the small dedicated team of UNISON activists on campus. They have run an amazing campaign that will be seen as a victory by the whole trade union movement.”
22 July 2020
10.00-11.00am
This introductory 1-hour session is aimed at all UNISON members with an interest in Neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is an umbrella term for autism, dyslexia, ADHD and dyspraxia. For further information and how to register for this course click here
If you are interested in attending a UNISON course and would like to know more – please contact the Branch Education officer, Linda Wood, for a chat: l.wood@shu.ac.uk
28 July 2020
10.00-11.00am
This introductory 1-hour session is aimed at all UNISON members with an interest in Autism. For further information and how to register for this course click here
If you are interested in attending a UNISON course and would like to know more – please contact the Branch Education officer, Linda Wood, for a chat: l.wood@shu.ac.uk
7 July 2020
10.00-11.00 am
This introductory 1-hour session is aimed at all UNISON members with an interest in dyslexia. For further information and how to register for the course click here
If you are interested in attending a UNISON course and would like to know more – please contact the Branch Education officer, Linda Wood, for a chat: l.wood@shu.ac.uk
These free online courses are open to anyone and are designed to introduce you to a range of subjects through an e-learning experience before committing to one of our longer traditional courses.
If you are interested in any of these courses, please visit Northern College website at:- https://www.northern.ac.uk/courses/micro-courses/
For more information about UNISON online courses for members and activists, please visit our website at:- https://yorks.unison.org.uk/online-training/
⇒ Mental Health and Well Being
⇒ Staff Skills Academy
⇒ Bereavement awareness workshops for members in social care
⇒ Personal Development for UNISON Members
⇒ Help with Digital Skills
⇒ Get online with Learn My Way
⇒ Everyday Skills in Maths and English
⇒ Family Maths Toolkit
⇒ Activist Learning
⇒ UNISON e-learning
⇒ Organising Space
If you are interested in attending a UNISON course and would like to know more – please contact the Branch Education officer, Linda Wood, for a chat: l.wood@shu.ac.uk