OPERATIONAL REDESIGN REJECTED BY UNISON
WHAT? WHY? WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Following UNISON announcement last night of the rejection of the operational redesign, we would like to explain to members what this means at present.
What happened?
Through the whole operational redesign UNISON and the Trust have been working together, talks had progressed well and key dates were set for key pieces of work to be completed by. Initially UNISON had an agreement with the Trust that all staff would have been advised of their allocated a rota line on the new rotas by the 17th January 2014. This did not happen in certain areas and on the 17th January the trust requested a meeting with UNISON at which a request was made by the Trust for a 1 week extension, until 24th January 2014, after consideration from members of the UNISON committee this was granted. This was granted despite our previous notice
http://uyab.co.uk/latest-news/latest-news/operational-redesign-up-date-10
Which stated;
“After lengthy discussions the following processes and timescales have been agreed, every UNISON member working within A&E Operations will know exactly what station, rota and line by the 17th January and there will be no enforced staff movement if members hold a substantive rota line.
If the Trust does not achieve this by the 17th January UNISON has insisted that any implementation would have to be postponed until after the 1st April”
UNISON agreed to this extension believing it was in the best interest of our members. Although the extension was agreed until the 24th January 2014 it became apparent to the UNISON committee as of the 29th January 2014 that some staff were still without an allocated rota line.
UNISON met with Trust executives on the 29th January to express our concerns.
Why?
Following a conference call between committee members on the morning of 30th January 2014 it became apparent that the majority of the committee believed we needed to withdraw from operational redesign negotiations. Following extensive communications from members the committee believed that the on-going UNISON indicative ballot would produce a reject mandate. With concerns from committee members over the announcement of our indicative ballot on the 7th February 2014 and the planned implementation on the 10th February 2014 we believed an announcement to reject on the 7th February would cause huge confusion over what staff would be expected to do on the 10th February 2014. An emergency meeting of the committee was called yesterday and a majority of the committee were able to attend. After taking advice from our regional officers the UNISON committee made the unanimous decision to have the indicative ballot result assessed at this point. We established that approximately 1/3 of our membership that is eligible to vote had voted and the result was 70% had voted to reject the operational redesign. Historically with UNISON votes the majority of voting has happened within the first 5 days of the ballot opening and that result has been unaffected by the subsequent ‘trickle’ of votes that come in after the initial first 5 days. With this in mind a majority of the UNISON committee meet yesterday with the trust and advised the trust that UNISON had no option but to reject the whole operational redesign package.
What happens next?
UNISON decision on making this announcement yesterday was heavily influenced by ensuring we had enough time to communicate with members over what will happen on 10th February 2014.
The UNISON indicative ballot remains open and members can continue to vote, a formal announcement of the verified result will follow the closing of the ballot at 12 noon 7th February 2014.
Following our announcement yesterday the Trust have contacted UNISON and requested urgent talks early next week. UNISON will be meeting the Trust and hope to establish a way forward. This meeting should provide both sides with clarity on the best way to move forward and we intend to communicate this with members immediately following the meeting.
Which rota will I be working on 10Th Feb?
UNISON need to await a formal response from the trust over their intentions before we are able to answer this. Our intention is to communicate this to members once we have been advised by the trust of their intentions.
How to keep upto date?
We would ask all unison members to register for the UNISON newsfeed by entering your email address on our website www.uyab.co.uk so that you receive all the updates that we issue.
We do understand that this is a difficult time for our members and we are working hard to try and resolve the current problems, please keep up-to-date with the current information or contact your local UNISON rep if you have any questions you need clarifying.
