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Below you can
find the last 4 published weekly bulletins. Bulletins older that 4 weeks
can be found on the
weekly bulletin archive page.
Please note however, that the archived bulletins are for reference only
and any offers may have expired.
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Branch
Secretary Ballot
10.02.12
Thank you to those of you who have already voted. The ballot closes on
Wednesday 15th February and many of you have not registered your votes.
This is your opportunity to decide who will run the branch and represent
your interests for the coming year so please look back to the email sent
on Monday 30th January and vote using the voting buttons. If you have
deleted or can’t find the email please contact me.
AGM
Just a reminder that the AGM is on Thursday 23rd February at Sixfields
Stadium. The meeting will start at 17:30 and a hot buffet will be
provided afterwards. The result of the Branch Secretary election will be
announced at the meeting. An electronic appointment was sent to all
members. If you are able to respond to this appointment it will help us
plan the catering and ensure we have an adequate number for the meeting
to be quorate.
Pensions FAQs
UNISON recently sent out some FAQs about the negotiations on the LGPS.
These are relatively easy to understand, even if a bit long, and we
wanted to let you know how negotiations were going as things had gone a
bit quiet.
What stage are negotiations at?
UNISON activists have voted to allow the union's negotiators to continue
discussions with the employer bodies on changes to public sector
pensions. Negotiators will continue to finalise details of the
governments offer, which our members will then be consulted on. If talks
should fail at any point, or if members vote to reject the offer, the
union’s ballot for industrial action – which remains live - means the
option of strike action is still on the table.
Negotiations on the local government scheme are due to run until April
2012.
Until we have a firm offer, we need to keep up the pressure.
Who decided to continue with talks?
More than 250 key NEC, national service group and sector reps and
regional convenors and service group representatives met at UNISON's
headquarters on 10th January to discuss the details of the proposals for
the local government and health pension schemes. The decisions were
taken by the six relevant service group executives made up of elected
lay members. They agreed to the frameworks negotiators have developed
with government ministers since 30th November. UNISON is a democratic
union, our elected activists from every service group in the local
government pensions scheme endorsed the framework proposals we have
negotiated, paving the way for more in depth talks.
What’s happening in the Local Government Pension scheme for England
and Wales?
The principles and timetable for detailed negotiations were jointly
agreed between unions and the Local Government Association after lengthy
talks and submitted to the government. On that basis UNISON Service
Group Executives bodies have voted to give the union's negotiators the
green light to continue discussions with the Local Government
Association on changes to the LGPS. Negotiations on the local government
scheme are due to run until April 2012.
We will continue to campaign to secure the best possible deal, which our
members will then be consulted on. Should negotiations fail, our
industrial action ballot, which remains live, gives us the option to
take more strike action.
IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES IN THE AGREEMENT
• Zero contribution increases for most members and no change in
contributions, if required, until 2014
• Maintain the inherent and relative value of the pension to other
public sector schemes
• Prevent opt-out from the scheme and encouraging new members
• Keep Admitted Body Status
• Ensure employers maintain the required contribution levels
• Establish new governance mechanisms at scheme and individual fund
levels to ensure good governance and reduce central government
intervention
• Negotiation – rather than imposition - of future changes post 2014 -
if any are necessary
• Improve efficiency through a review of procurement, fund management
and Administration
How will we get a say on the final proposals?
Any decision on final proposals in either the NHS or LGPS will be a
decision for members. Members will be consulted following meetings of
the service group executives. If proposals are rejected, members will
need to take further sustained industrial action.
Will there be more industrial action?
If talks should fail at any point, or if members vote to reject the
offer, the union’s ballot for industrial action - which remains live -
means the option of strike action is very much still on the table.
What is “Fair Deal” and “Admitted Body Status” and why is it so
important?
This is a big one - Fair Deal is currently a mechanism introduced by the
last Labour Government to provide pensions protection for employees
whose job has been transferred out of parts of local and central
government and the NHS Fair Deal provides the following benefits:
• Broadly comparable benefits for future pensions service post
transfer, which must be on the basis of the new employer either having
Admitted Body Status (in the case of the LGPS), Direction Status (in the
case of the NHSPS), or providing transferring employees with access to
an equivalent defined benefit pension scheme
• Option to transfer past service benefits on a like-for-like basis
• Applies on re-let of contract
Since the election of the new Coalition Government, Fair Deal has been
under threat. Very soon after the election the government announced a
consultation on abolishing it. However, in the central discussions on
public sector pension provision, UNISON and other public sector trade
unions have secured a commitment from Ministers to maintain Fair Deal
for the LGPS and the NHSPS. There was also agreement that members TUPE’d
out from the NHS would be likely to be able to stay in the NHSPS after
the date they are transferred. UNISON sits on a working party looking
into how this is going to be brought in. In the LGPS contractors would
still have the option of entering into admission agreements with LGPS
funds to allow transferred staff to remain in the LGPS as an alternative
to providing a pension scheme that is broadly equivalent to the LGPS.
This commitment is conditional on acceptance of a negotiated agreement
being concluded on the government’s pension reform proposals. Ministers
have made it clear that in the absence of an agreement, Fair Deal will
be abolished.
Key reasons why we must keep Fair Deal in the NHS and the LGPS:
Protecting your pension - the most important reason is the
protection it offers to the pension of employees compulsory transferred
out of the public sector. It means that they will maintain the value of
their pension into the future by their new employer having Admitted Body
Status in the LGPS or a Direction in the NHSPS that allows members to
stay in the relevant scheme, or by it providing access to its own
broadly comparable defined benefit pension scheme.
An insurance policy against privatisation - it is very likely
that the scale of privatisation/outsourcing will increase significantly
in the future. With abolition of the Two Tier and other workforce codes
by the Coalition Government, local authorities and the NHS will think
that they can transfer services out to private contractors and community
and voluntary organisations that will offer to do the work cheaper by
paying non-TUPE staff minimum pay and conditions. That is why Fair Deal
must be seen as an essential insurance policy for the increasing numbers
of staff at risk of transfer.
Protecting the viability of LGPS - as more and more people are
transferred out of the public sector it is vital that membership of LGPS
is not eroded to a point where it is no longer economically viable. That
is why Admitted Body Status for LGPS is so important under the Fair
Deal. This way employees can remain members of their current pension
scheme when they transfer to a private sector or community and voluntary
employer. It also means that we are protecting the number of people
actively contributing to LGPS.
Setting the benchmark for decent pension provision - if the
public sector pension schemes are undermined to a point they are no
longer viable, we will lose a valuable bench mark on what a fair and
reasonable pension should be. This is the benchmark that we want private
sector pensions brought up to, not the public sector driven down to the
sub-standard private sector level.
Economic common sense - the alternative to providing people with
a pension they can live on with dignity in retirement, is to have large
numbers of retired people living in poverty on sub-standard pensions and
reliant on state benefits and support. The economic costs of substandard
pension provision is great - the social costs will be even greater.
What is a CARE scheme – how does it work? Who does it benefit?
CARE stands for Career Average Revalued Earnings. Broken down it
comprises two main parts as follows;
Career Average
Broadly, this means that your pension is calculated as a percentage of
the average of all your pensionable earnings for each year that you
contributed to the scheme - not just your pensionable earnings near
retirement as in a Final Salary scheme.
Revalued Earnings
All those earnings will be increased every year from the year they are
earned until retirement. How earnings are increased (that is revalued)
depends on the rules of the scheme and can be some measure of earnings
or inflation.
CARE schemes can be designed to be just as generous as final salary
schemes (our negotiations have revolved around this not being a cost
cutting exercise) the benefits are spread more evenly across the
membership are reasonably predictable but more complicated to calculate.
They tend to favour the low paid and careers that don’t rise sharply
towards the end of a career as the revaluation factor can represent more
than was actually received in pay rises each year.
What has changed since we started our dispute?
A great deal has changed since the beginning of negotiations when the
coalition government declared itself determined to strip public sector
pensions down to the bone.
What are other unions doing?
In local Government all the LGPS trade unions apart from Unite, have
agreed the principles and timetable. Unite is now attending meetings.
In the NHS the majority of unions have agreed to conclude the
negotiations on the outstanding issues in the Governments Heads of
Agreement document. Once this has been done members will be consulted on
the final offer. Two unions have rejected the Heads of Agreement – Unite
and BMA but they still attend meetings.
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Strike
Deductions
03.02.12
Most of you will have seen by now that, following a meeting with Peter
Lake and Steve Walters on Monday, the Force has agreed that the pay
deducted from members who went on strike should be 1/365th of their
annual gross salary. This means most members will receive a rebate in
February’s pay and some will be owed quite a lot of money.
This agreement was reached after Steve and Peter produced case law
supporting the deduction of 1/365th to HR and Payroll. If you feel you
will need financial support in the meantime, having been deducted more
than you were expecting, please contact Luisa Jepson to make an
application to the Hardship Fund. The sub-committee is meeting next week
to approve applications we have received and make payments.
Still calling
all Face Painters!!
We still don’t have anyone to paint faces at the Force Open Day on 12th
May. If you can do this we can provide materials for you as there is a
small budget and you will be allowed the time as work time.
Branch Auditor
Needed
The UNISON financial year runs from January to December so at the end of
December the Treasurer closes the accounts. These need to be audited by
two members of the branch and are then submitted following the AGM in
February.
Paul Seckington, former Treasurer and Retired Member, has offered to be
one of the auditors but we need one more. With Paul and Angela to guide
you you will not need much financial experience although a basic
understanding would be an advantage. The audit is just to confirm that
the Treasurer has got her sums correct and all the receipts and invoices
etc. are in order. You are offered a small honoraria payment from the
branch for your time.
If you are interested please contact me and I will get Angela to make
contact when the accounts are ready to be audited.
Branch
Secretary’s Ballot
Just a reminder to register your vote in the ballot. An electronic
ballot email was sent out on Monday 30th January. We have posted ballot
papers to any members we are aware of that do not have an email address
or are out of the Force at the moment on long term sick leave or
maternity leave etc.
If you haven’t received a ballot by one of these methods by Monday
please let us know. The ballot closes on Wednesday 15th February at 5pm.
Do not worry if you think you may have voted twice as we will check for
duplicate votes during the counting process.
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Dyslexia
Course
13.01.12
I have been forwarded details of a course being run on 13th and 14th
February at Brixworth Country Park. This course is free to all members
of UNISON. Further information and details of how to book are below.
Branch Elections
Just another reminder that the closing date for nominations for all
branch positions is next Friday 20th January. Our long standing Health
and Safety Officer has decided not to continue in this role following
the AGM so if anyone is interested in this position please contact the
office or complete a nomination form. If you would like to know a little
more about what the position entails I’m sure Geoff Gascoigne would be
willing to speak to you and fill you in.
Discounts
I have been made aware by a member that BoardersBoards, Northants only
dedicated snowboarding shop on the High Street, Weedon will give a 10%
discount on production of a Police Staff ID Badge. This discount will
shortly be advertised to all Police Officers and Staff via the Lifestyle
link on Forcenet.
A member has informed me that the following link takes you to a site
where you can download free or discounted e-books for Kindles, if anyone
got one for Christmas! You will not be able to download these using the
Force system so please send the link to a personal email address if you
wish to use it.
www.gutenberg.org
Many members have asked about a mobile phone company, Voice Mobile, that
was being advertised by the Federation at our Christmas Fayre. They
offer contracts etc. at discounted prices to Police Officers and Staff.
The flyer below is for the Christmas offer that was being advertised at
the Fayre for an iPhone 4S but the link takes you to their site for
further information and deals.
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