A number of members have asked for the voting figures that were cast in the UNISON ballot regarding the Trust’s proposed Work Force Plan. They are as follows –
Reject – 892 Accept – 40 Spoiled – 9
Total – 941 Turnouts – 34.4%
It is interesting that the Trust has played upon the fact they believe this is a low turnout, despite it being similar to the previous straw poll figure that led to a massive postal ballot result, and when compared to other elections such as 2014 European election turnout (35.6%), recent local government elections (35.7%), Police commissioners (15.1%) or London Mayor (31%) it is on a par.
So despite the notices that have gone out since the ballot result was announced, this is a very good result and a resounding rejection of the proposal. On the back of the fact the Trust still has not given members the full work force plan that was to include rotas; the rotas being the supposed reason for the long delay in releasing the proposal.
The Trust has all the rota keys required to complete the rotas for each station; so now UNISON calls upon the Trust to formally release them to members in order to give a full and transparent picture of the direction that the Trust intends to go with this plan. If movement of members and unsocial hours pay is to be affected, members have a right to know, sooner rather than later. These are the things that have a huge impact on member’s lives, support decisions on things like loans, buying a new car, moving house or even retirement, all huge decisions, which cannot be made while being left in limbo, at the mercy of conjecture and rumour.
The Trust also highlights the issue around funding, yet through freedom of information requests we can see that all the Executives and Directors listed in the request have received significantly higher pay rises than members on the ground since 2008, with one during 13/14 getting an incredible 20.69% increase, and another receiving pay increases of 10.08%, 6.65% and 14.26% over a period of 3 years between 2011-2014.
As stated in the previous notification, UNISON acknowledges the difficult political times we currently serve under, with a government elected on just 36.1% of the vote. However our members, in all areas of the Trust, whether that be Support Services, EOC,111, PTS, Ops or Workshops to name a few, deserve to be treated fairly, and be given a workforce plan that works! Giving members the recognition they deserve for the incredible service they provide day in day out to the public of Yorkshire.
UNISON Branch Committee
