Homecare Proposal Update
It is important to recognise that by standing together earlier in the year, you, together avoided having worse working conditions forced upon you. It’s vital that you stand together now more than ever.
Make no mistake that this is an attack on your terms and conditions. We do not believe that anyone should be forced to accept split shift working or a significant pay cut.
It seems as though we have returned full circle to the original offer whereby you must accept split shift working of 30 hours per week or 25 hours per week, or drop your hours to 23 per week for straight shifts with a significant pay cut.
Senior management have now removed the pay protection for those having to reduce hours as they now see that as a voluntary acceptance. There is very little voluntary about this in our view.
DCC are dangling the £1000 carrot for you to accept split shift working. It is likely that this would be paid next year.
If those of you on 30 hour contracts were to accept the 23 hour contracts in order to avoid having to work gruelling split shifts, this will mean a loss of £4536.95 per year. That’s £378.07 per month. For a 25 hour contract, this would mean a loss of £3240.68 per year. That’s a loss of £270.05 per month by the councils’ own calculations.
As your trade union, we would never recommend worse working conditions, or any pay cut and we hope that you can understand our stance on this. To put this into context, at one of the more recent meetings that were held, we asked senior managers of the council if they would accept a pay cut worth over £4000 per year. Needless to say that was rebuffed.
For a council that has signed up to fair work, it’s telling that DCC are intent on making a predominantly female workforce worse off.. The Scottish Government, and Dundee city council cannot claim to adhere to a fair work agenda, when they continue to push an agenda which leaves their workforce worse off.
The public sector equality duty requires Scottish public bodies (i.e. Dundee City Council) :Must have ‘due regard’ to the need to:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination
- advance equality of opportunity
- foster good relations
Mortgages will not be given on anything more than your contract states, and affordable child care is extremely difficult to obtain before a 7.00 am start or a 10.00 pm finish. This is important for people who are considering having children in future as well as those of you who do already.
We also consider your work life balance to be of the utmost importance, and split shifts will have a detrimental impact on that.
It is becoming increasingly clear that women have been completely undervalued for the work that you do, in every aspect of your lives. GMB Scotland will not stand by and allow that to continue.
We believe that you do one of the most important, difficult, undervalued jobs in the council, and it’s time that you were recognised for your worth. This won’t be fixed politically, it will be with your industrial strength. Please do not be made to feel like you should continue to accept worse working conditions for lower pay.
Please call us with any questions, and please make sure your details are up to date.
Only union members will get a say over these proposals.
Any non-members are welcome to join us to have a say.
We are tired of the council rhetoric where they state that you must change or face privatisation. This isn’t a choice, and we will fight for all of the services to be returned in house, with decent paying jobs and terms and conditions.
GMB Dundee Branch
01382 225491
When we hold a ballot, this must be a postal ballot by law and we must have your up to date home address, job title and workplace. It’s also really important that we can communicate with you quickly, and having an email address and mobile number is the best way for that to happen.
Posted: 22nd November 2018