Dear Member
Hello again everyone! We hope you’re well and whether you’ve been working today or not we hope you’ve managed to see a little of the lovely sunshine we’ve had.
Wirral Council updates:
Social Work meeting
Unfortunately, we have had to postpone the meeting we had planned to hold tomorrow for Social Workers, we will look to re-arrange this for next week. In the interim if any Social Workers, have any issues they would like to raise with us, please do get in touch, contact details are as ever, at the end of this email.
Pulse questionnaire
Wirral Council has issued a questionnaire to staff to help in assessing the impact this crisis is having on your work life and wellbeing. We would encourage all members in the council to complete the questionnaire. The questionnaire is accessible through the intranet.
Want to become involved in Unison?
Could you be a Unison steward or Health and Safety Representative? Hopefully, through our regular emails you will have seen the real difference that Unison can make to the pay and working conditions of its members. In the past 6 weeks, we have brought about improvements in sick pay, secured pay increases for some of our members, stopped compulsory redundancies and improved support for people working through this crisis. These are just some examples of how we have improved things for our members in recent weeks but of course we have had many other victories over the years. Wirral Unison is much more than just the seconded officers team, we rely upon having stewards and health and safety representatives across the various work places we cover. For a trade union to be truly effective we need a Unison rep in every building, service area, job role etc.
Can you be the representative from your work place? Or perhaps you know someone who should be? We provide full training and support to all stewards and health and safety reps, please drop us a line to find out more about being a Unison activist.
Sick Pay for Care Workers
Please see below the press coverage of the recent announcement by the Council of the investment in the Care Sector. Whilst perhaps this coverage doesn’t fully reflect the role Wirral Unison played in achieving this, we’re sure you will find it interesting reading. In particular, we would refer you to the comment in the article that states that there is “an expectation that care workers who are off due to coronavirus receive full sick pay”. We will be working with the Council to ensure that this is applied widely and consistently. Please contact us if you are currently absent from work due to coronavirus and not receiving your normal pay.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/multi-million-pound-boost
‘There For You’ Covid- 19 Response Fund
There for You is UNISON’s unique charity, set up to help members in difficulties – and this year, the COVID-19 crisis is making life harder for many of our already-stretched members. Because more of you are struggling, There for You has set up a special fund to respond to calls for help needed especially because of the pandemic, with £250,000 set aside to help members.
Please see link below for more details:
https://www.unison.org.uk/news/article/2020/05/covid19-support-fund/
Learning opportunities for members
Unison regularly provides training courses for members as well as activists. Unfortunately, as you can understand face-to- face courses are not currently taking place, however Unison are starting to expand online courses. Please find below links to training in four areas that you may find of interest.
Mental health and wellbeing
Dealing with trauma and bereavement
Personal development for UNISON members
Guides to getting started with IT
That’s all for today, we hope you continue to find our updates of interest.
If you are reading this because it has been shared with you and you’re not a member, here’s the link to join up! Click here
Take care of yourselves and each other and we will be back with another update for you all tomorrow.
In solidarity!
Lois and Dave
Dave: davidnjones@wirral.gov.uk 07880199539
Lois: loisfounds1@wirral.gov.uk 07384512521
Published on: May 7, 2020