Trades Council meetings continue to be held online, with delegates preferring to take a cautious approach and agreeing to review the situation in January. Maybe we have got too used to not having to gulp down our tea and head off into a cold and rain-swept night! But we also do get sobering insights from NHS colleagues as to the reality “on the ground”.
At our October meeting we received an update on the UNITE pathology lab. scientists’ strike at East Lancashire Hospitals Trust. Local steward Imran Akram and UNITE Officer Phillip Potter filled us in on some of the background to the strike, which has now gone over the 20 week mark. In 2019 UNITE and the hospitals’ management had resolved a long-term disagreement over the Grade of staff at Blackburn and Burnley, with the union arguing that they had for years been payed less than should have been the case under the national “Agenda for Change” pay structure, and less than equivalent staff in other Trusts had been getting. Since then the staff have been paid at the correct rate, but the agreement also said that what they should have been paid in the period prior to 2019 would need to be looked at on a one by one basis – because everyone’s circumstances were different. Some would be owed hundreds of pounds, others thousands. After being repeatedly pressed to implement this side of the agreement, the employer eventually sought to place an entirely different construction on it, saying that they had only committed to “considering” this side of the matter. What had been a breakthrough became a broken promise, and one, moreover, that struck to the heart of the negotiating relationship.
No wonder the resulting action has been so determined. Following a visit from UNITE’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, the campaign has been widened to directly appeal to Trust Board members and to seek support from the local community.
Supporters are urged to send an email to Trust CEO Martin Hodgson, using this facility set up through “megaphone”: “Send a Message – Fair Pay For Scientists”.
You can keep up to date with developments through the campaign’s Facebook page: “Fair Pay For Scientists”.
Followers of our own Facebook page will have noticed that we have poured cold water on the idea that we are in the middle of a “wages boom”, thanks to Britain leaving the EU single market. Yes, there have been some good settlements in the logistics sector – but the overall picture remains less clear cut. The one in five workers affected by “fire and re-hire” have not, in general, seen their conditions improve.
The “Investor” news blog recently commented: “real-time data still suggest that only a few people are getting a big pay rise — chiefly in areas most exposed to the sudden stop in migration from the EU. The median advertised hourly wage for heavy goods vehicle drivers rose 15 per cent between January and September, according to the job site Indeed, but across all job postings, advertised pay rates rose just 1.3 per cent.
“The Bank of England’s agents found a similar divergence in pay awards for existing employees — with increases of 10-40 per cent for skills in short supply, but typical settlements around 2-3 per cent…..
“The dispersion of pay growth has risen quite markedly — so for the high numbers we read about, there are also low ones,” Andrew Bailey, Bank of England governor, said last month…..for most people, wage gains will be far more modest — and could be entirely wiped out by inflation, which the BoE expects to climb to above 4 per cent by the end of the year”.
Delegates from the NHS and Local Authorities pointed out that their workplaces were certainly not full of eager anticipation of a wage bonanza, being more in mind that the amounts currently on offer would lead to a “real” decline. “Consultative” ballots in both sectors have rejected what is on offer, though in both there is some debate as to the value of these exercises, given that they tend not to engage members so much as a “real” ballot. Better, perhaps, to bite the bullet straight away and sink or swim by the outcome.
On more general local matters, the meeting was told that the Trades Council had secured an assurance from the Borough Council that the Darwen “Town Investment Plan” would be made fully public once the final details were agreed. The Darwen Town Deal Board had made an initial submission for £29.8m, but received only £25m and so were having to “fine-tune” the project list. We had also had correspondence with the Borough picking up some issues in respect of the Local Plan consultation. We had pointed out, for instance, that the national planning framework said that: “the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community should be assessed and reflected in planning policies”, and that plans should “promote and support the development of under-utilised land and buildings, especially if this would help to meet identified needs for housing where land supply is constrained and available sites could be used more effectively (for example converting space above shops….” – matters that we had raised in our initial response. The Borough said that they would address the additional questions we had raised during the next phase of the process.