nick venedi

Tuesday 27 October 2009

The future of the Branch


Looking for secondments to deal with...

We are all aware that there will be a major attack on our members jobs and terms and conditions of service irrespective of which government comes into power in May 2010. In addition we are expecting a radical review of the time off for those of us who have given up our careers to serve in our positions. The ACAS code of practice talks of two separate areas where time off is required by union activists and elected representatives. The major part of what most of us on time off do is to do with duties rather than activities such as preparing for disciplinary hearings, sickness panels, reorganisations (which can sometimes last anything from 3 to 6 months) advising on terms and conditions of service, attending negotiating meetings plus a plethora of other major matters.


Lambeth Council have already warned me, for example, that the fact that they allowed on a temporary basis as they put it for two of us to share the position of Branch Secretary they can no longer afford to have that. The original agreement, as they remind me, was for Jon to be on full time for a period of 6 months and that was to do with trying to finalise policies and procedures and the formal sorting out of single status. Now my glorious employer may be aware (of course they are) that they have not been able to finalise these policies and procedures so whether they can afford to disturb that large donkey or not is a matter for them to decide. What we must be ready for is the imminent attack on those of us who are on secondment. So the world has forgotten that the financial crisis was created by greedy bankers and the likes of us in the public sector have to pay for their mistakes oh.. and their huge bonuses!!

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