solihull unison cuts bulletin

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Solihull Council met on 1 st March 2011 and set the budget of £148m for 2011-12, cutting the budget by £15m. This is over 10% of the budget and follows a cut of 14.3% in the Government’s grant to the Council. The cuts are a direct consequence of the policies of the Con-Dem Government to reduce public spending. While the Council leadership ruled out a programme of compulsory redundancies for 2011-12 it has not ruled out the possibility of some compulsory redundancies ‘as a last resort’. At the Budget setting Council Cllr.Hedley, Leader of the Council, warned ‘I cannot guarantee that there will not be job loses.’ UNISON is aware there will also be additional post deletions this year, while there is no post holder there remain consequences for services and remaining workers through the loss of these jobs. The Council already knows its Grant settlement for 2012-13 and is expecting to make further cuts of £11.8m in March 2012. Cuts are expected in following years with an overall cut of 25% being made from the Council’s budget by 2013-14. The use of compulsory redundancies to achieve cuts has not so far been ruled out for future years. £15m budget cut Pressures for the year ahead UNISON’s challenge has been to go through a vast amount of information to understand what these cuts mean for us as workers and for the services we provide. The details of many of the cuts and savings proposals are still being worked out. This bulletin is our first attempt at explaining how these cuts will affect the workforce as whole and specific services. Inside This Issue 1 £15m budget cut 2 Undermining terms and conditions 2 Pay freeze 3 Lean cuts 3 UNISON’s response 4 No Cuts, No Cover resolution ‘I cannot guarantee that there will not be job loses.’ Solihull UNISON Cuts Bulletin No 1 March 2011

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Budget update giving details of the impacts of the cuts.

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Page 1: Solihull UNISON Cuts bulletin

Solihull Council met on 1st March 2011 and set the budget of £148m for

2011-12, cutting the budget by £15m. This is over 10% of the budget and

follows a cut of 14.3% in the Government’s grant to the Council. The cuts

are a direct consequence of the policies of the Con-Dem Government to

reduce public spending.

While the Council leadership ruled out a programme of compulsory

redundancies for 2011-12 it has not ruled out the possibility of some

compulsory redundancies ‘as a last resort’. At the Budget setting Council

Cllr.Hedley, Leader of the Council, warned ‘I cannot guarantee that there

will not be job loses.’ UNISON is aware there will also be additional post

deletions this year, while there is no post holder there remain

consequences for services and remaining workers through the loss of these

jobs.

The Council already knows its Grant settlement for 2012-13 and is expecting

to make further cuts of £11.8m in March 2012. Cuts are expected in

following years with an overall cut of 25% being made from the Council’s

budget by 2013-14. The use of compulsory redundancies to achieve cuts

has not so far been ruled out for future years.

£15m budget cut

Pressures for the year ahead

from the President

UNISON’s challenge has been to go through a vast amount of information

to understand what these cuts mean for us as workers and for the

services we provide. The details of many of the cuts and savings proposals

are still being worked out. This bulletin is our first attempt at explaining

how these cuts will affect the workforce as whole and specific services.

Inside This Issue

1 £15m budget cut

2 Undermining terms and

conditions

2 Pay freeze

3 Lean cuts

3 UNISON’s response

4 No Cuts, No Cover resolution

‘I cannot guarantee that there will not be job loses.’

Solihull UNISON Cuts Bulletin No 1

March 2011

Page 2: Solihull UNISON Cuts bulletin

Page 2

CUTS BULLETIN NO 1

When the Council voted on the budget they imposed a cut of £347k

from the mileage budget through the imposition of the 40p per mile

rate upon all car drivers and the abolition of the banded lump-sum

scheme for essential car drivers. With the rapid increase in petrol

prices this measure will hit essential car drivers very hard, we

estimate that they will on average loss £500 per year. Senior

Management ended negotiations by e-mail. We are in dispute with

our Employer.

UNISON has recently discovered that there is to be an attempt to

toughen the criteria for the award of increments and it is proposed

that our targets should be tied to achieving efficiency savings. Our

concern that this is an attempt cut by stealth the £1m bill for the

award of increments. In the second of the pay freeze the award

annual increments having become even more important for workers

at a time of rising inflation.

Undermining local terms and conditions

Get on the bus!

Coaches leave Keepers Lodge at

7.45pm and Union Road at 8.15am on

Saturday 26th March

Free to UNISON members and family

members.

Phone 704 6048 or e-mail

[email protected] to book your

seat

‘Essential car

drivers will be

£500 worse off

under the new

scheme.’

Doing more with less!

UNISON believes that all workers on the frontline will have to work harder

by doing ‘more with less’. We are aware that most Managers have had

significant increase in workloads with increasing spans of management.

UNISON has raised particular concerns that some highly pressured frontline

services such as Children’s Social Work services are still having their budget

cut by £600k although there has been a 23% increase in workload in recent

years with no corresponding increase in staffing.

We are concerned that this has potentially serious consequences for the

health and safety of staff, and in particular increased incidence of work

related stress. This situation is likely to continue and intensify in the years

ahead.

Pay freeze and Pension contributions increase

The other big cut affecting us all is the announcement of a second year

of the pay freeze for 2011-12 by Local Government employers for all

Council workers. The Council will pocket a further £126k at our expense.

This at a time of increasing inflation, the RPI stands at 5.1% and CPI at

4%, which will in all likelihood lead to an increase in interest rates later

in 2011.

The Hutton Commission on public sector pensions will report in the

spring and will recommend significant increase in our pension’s

contributions. We are directly paying for the cuts by systematic

reductions in our real incomes.

Page 3: Solihull UNISON Cuts bulletin

PAGE 3 CUTS BULLETIN 1

Lean cuts

Targeted cuts in services

Some services have been targeted with a disproportionate level of cut. The

service supporting unaccompanied asylum seeking children is to be cut by 15%

following a cut in funding from the United Kingdom Borders Agency. The

service will hit by the largest single cut of £1.2m. Higher caseloads for workers

and a reduced and ‘second tier’ service to care leavers from this group are

being proposed. Cuts and savings of 15% have also been identified for the

Youth service.

Contact us:

Solihull UNISON

[email protected] and

by phone on 704 6048

Find us on the web

www.solihullunison.co.uk

and find our Solihull UNISON

Facebook group

Lean cuts

UNISON raised concerns about Lean with the Leaders of the main Political

Groups on the Council. We wrote: The Lean Team and Lean Review process is

being used to drive through significant savings this coming year. There need

to be effective checks to the lean review process. UNISON remains concerned

that some identified lean savings are not viable and have been hung round the

neck of a particular service and will have to be achieved one way or another.

We are concerned that the Lean reviews might lead to the possible loss of

posts in the future and that the Lean Team is driven to achieving it’s own

savings targets through lean reviewing other services.

Solihull UNISON’s response:

UNISON with the GMB wrote to Cabinet members before the Cabinet Meeting in February to detail

our concerns about specific cuts and savings for jobs and services. Immediately before the March

Council meeting we followed this up with a letter to the leaders of the main Political Groups making

demands on how they should protect frontline services. (Go to our website to see our written

responses www.solihullunison.co.uk)

UNISON’s approach to the cuts is twofold. We are committed to publicly campaigning to explain the

impact and social costs of the cuts. We are asking members to join us in London on 26th March to

show our opposition to the Con-Dem Government’s cuts. Within the Council, our priority is to

defend the terms and conditions of our members and to protect our working conditions.

At our Annual General meeting, we passed a resolution on No Cuts, No Cover. This calls for

members to take workplace based action to highlight the workload and to protect their working

conditions. UNISON is a membership led union, if we are to protect our working conditions you

need to take action. We need you to take two simple steps. Firstly, can you organize a meeting in

your workplace with other UNISON members to talk about the cuts and what it means for your

service and your work? Secondly, if you haven’t UNISON Workplace representative, elect one.

By getting organized workplace by workplace we can make a difference. We may be fighting

significant compulsory redundancies in 2012.

Page 4: Solihull UNISON Cuts bulletin

Page 2

CUTS BULLETIN NO 1

Motion on ‘No Cuts No Cover’

This AGM of Solihull Local Government Branch notes:

1. Working people in this country and across the world are paying the price of bailing out the Banks. The public cost of

intervening in the global financial crisis is equivalent to the cost of $1400 for every person in the world. (source: Robert

Peston, Business Correspondent of the BBC)

2. In the United Kingdom ‘As of June 2009 the cost to the public of bailing out the bankers: £850 Billion.’ (source: Andrew

Grice, The Independent, 4th December 2009)

3. That large scale cuts in public spending will probably push the economy back into recession pushing up unemployment

and reducing the tax base to bring down the deficit. There is no evidence that by cutting public spending and public

sector jobs that this will spur private sector growth and employment.

4. That public spending cuts are an attack on the social wage and will have a disproportionate impact upon women and

children. The cuts are inherently unfair.

5. The Con-Dem Government is using the deficit as a political opportunity to attack the public provision of services; it is

proposing a further a wave of privatization.

This AGM further notes

6. The cut of over 14.3% of the Government’s grant to Solihull Council for 2011-12. This is the first of three years of cuts.

7. The decision of Solihull MBC not to introduce a programme of compulsory redundancies as a method of managing the

Councils’ budget this year. The cuts to the Council’s budget will result in some redundancies.

8. The budget proposals include the deletion of a significant number of posts. This follows a reduction in the staffing

establishments in some Departments in previous years.

9. Management will pressurize remaining workers to cover the work for deleted posts and frozen posts.

10. In many workplaces there will be more work with fewer people and resources to do that work. This has implications for

our health and safety as we work harder and more intensely. This situation is likely to continue and intensify in the years

ahead

This AGM resolves that the Branch should:

1. Publically campaign against cuts in Council and all public services including supporting the TUC March for the

Alternative on 26th March 2011.

2. To effectively publicize the effects of cuts in Council services to the wider public of Solihull.

3. To develop campaigns to defend specific Council services under threat making links with service users and people in the

community.

4. That this Branch develop a strategy of ‘No Cuts, No Cover’ to enable workers to defend their working conditions. This

strategy would involve the following:

a) To monitor the impact of job freezes and post deletions in workplaces.

b) To hold workplace meetings with members concerned about workloads and the impact of lost and frozen posts.

c) To support the members to take action to highlight the workload and to protect their working conditions.

d) To publicize the ‘No Cuts, No Cover’ campaign amongst the wider membership and to challenge the lie that ‘we

are all in this together’.

e) To ensure ‘No Cuts No Cover’ as a standing item on the agenda of all Branch meetings.