As you are aware UNISON locally have been heavily negotiating with your employer on their proposals on Pay and Terms & Conditions. We take these negotiations very seriously. To protect your employment interests and to ensure we are getting the best support for all UNISON members we are involving UNISON legal team at every stage.
As it stands this is where we are……..We met with the employer side today (Monday 12 October) and the employer formally responded to the alternative proposal put forward by UNISON on behalf of our members on Monday 5th October 2015. Due to budgetary constraints the employer side rejected UNISON’s proposal and made it clear that the final offer is what has already been presented. UNISON still maintains that the employer could improve the offer.
We have been asked to clarify our position on reaching a collective agreement with Derby City Council on these proposed changes. We have made it clear that we are committed to working towards reaching a collective agreement with Derby City Council as we believe this is in our members’ best interest. We have requested additional time to be able to fully analyse the information the employer has produced. However UNISON is unable to reach a collective agreement at this time. We are unable to ballot our members knowing that we haven’t been able to fully assess the information, and we are aware we haven’t been provided with all the data we have requested, therefore it would be unfair to ask members to respond to a ballot on this basis. The employer side have issued us with an ultimatum to either ballot our members by the end of October of they would seek to individually reach agreement with staff.
The employer side has now closed negotiations on reaching a collective agreement.
UNISON locally will be meeting the employer side next Monday to discuss the next stage. We have continued to make it clear to the employer side that the on-going uncertainty and loss in pay is causing our members extreme distress, frustration, and have requested they reconsider their position.
In the meantime, as a matter of urgency, we will be meeting with our Equal Pay Legal Team to establish what the next steps will be for UNISON members. We will communicate this with our members accordingly. We will be continuing to visit schools and workplaces if you want us to visit then please contact the branch.
We will continue to urge the council to reconsider as we believe there is an alternative and reaching collective agreement is in our members’ best interests.