| UNISON City of Edinburgh Branch |
|
|
MINUTES of BRANCH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
held on 19 MARCH 2002 within the CITY CHAMBERS, HIGH STREET, EDINBURGH (NOTE: The Branch Annual General Meeting scheduled for Monday 18 February 2002 was inquorate) There were 220 members in attendance. The meeting was chaired by Branch President, J Galletta. 1. OPENING REMARKS/ INTRODUCTIONS The Chair asked the meeting to note the following amendments: Item 9 - Rule Change Rule change 2 - "5. Branch Employed Staff Structures" "Service Conditions Convener" should read "Co-ordinator" delete item (iv) Item 10 - Policy Motions Motion 7 - Places at National Delegates Conference for All Self Organised Groups At end of first paragraph add "all Disabled Members" The meeting AGREED the Emergency Motions on Car Allowances and Bakkari Adoui would be submitted to the Agenda. 2. APPOINTMENT OF SCRUTINEERS 4 Scrutineers were appointed. 3. STANDING ORDERS The Branch Standing Orders were AGREED for the following year. 4. MINUTES OF BRANCH MEETINGS The minutes of the Branch Annual General Meeting of 8 March 2001 were AGREED as a correct record with no matters arising. 5. ANNUAL REPORT No questions were raised on the Annual Report. 6. FINANCIAL REPORT The meeting AGREED the Financial Statements and additional statement as circulated. 7. COUNCIL BUDGET AND SINGLE STATUS The Service Conditions Co-ordinator appraised the meeting on progress on negotiations on the following: i. Budget ii. Single Status ii. Pay Frequencies iii. Annual Leave/Public Holidays At this point it was AGREED the Emergency Motion on Car Allowances be heard. EMERGENCY MOTION Proposed by:Carol Stewart (Social Work) Seconded by: Mo Innes (Social Work): Amendment proposed by John Ross (Housing), John Mulgrew (LVJB). Following a debate on the Motion and the Amendment the motion was CARRIED as amended as follows:- "This Branch notes the decision of the Branch Committee on 4 February to accept the result of the essential car users ballot as a mandate to accept proposed changes in conditions. It notes that this was a difficult decision given management's inflexible position in removing essential status from staff for whom the use of a car is essential to performing their duties. For Social Workers, for example, there are significant issues regarding workload and service delivery along with staff safety issues. There are also significant losses in earnings of up to £800 per year. This Branch regrets that the Branch Committee and the balloted members did not have all the necessary information before them prior to coming to their decision. This includes: 1. There was no information as to whether the 'buy out' would
or would not attract tax. If, as it now seems, the payment is
taxable, members must be reconsulted immediately. 2. The Branch contravened its own policy of opposition to the
Council's insistence of seeking cuts for one group of staff to
avoid redundancies in another group of staff. The Branch Committee
instructed Branch Officers to separate the conditions issues and
refused to treat all the elements as a 'package'. Despite this the covering letter for the ballot explicitly made
a link between acceptance of the offer and the avoidance of redundancies.
This not only contravened the mandate from the Branch Committee,
it was also perceived by many members as either moral blackmail
from the union or its unwillingness to challenge the Council's
redundancy threat. 3. The reasons for the Branch Committee recommending that members
should accept a cut in conditions and loss of earnings were not
satisfactorily explained in any literature to members. 4. The financial implications for individual essential car users
i.e. users doing 225 miles per month stand to lose £675 per annum
were not made clear. Because of the above, this Branch meeting believes that the ballot process has resulted in members' anger being directed at the union rather than the Council."It is recognised members may wish to cease using their vehicles for work purposes given the reduction in car allowances. Such action will directly impact on individual workloads with inevitable backlogs being created. Branch Officers are instructed to raise with management the need to introduce mechanisms to monitor workloads and to ensure adequate resources are allocated to address backlogs. The council should also be urged to introduce financial monitoring systems to assess whether increased use of alternative transport represents Best Value." 8. ELECTION OF BRANCH OFFICERS The under noted were elected unopposed. President: Joe Galletta (City Development) Chairperson: Douglas Black (Corporate Services) Vice-Chairperson (2): Barbara Foubister (Education), Matthew Crighton (City Development) Secretary: John Stevenson (Social Work) Treasurer: Mike McCrossan (Housing) SC Co-ordinator: John Mulgrew (LVJB) SC Convener (APT&C): John Ross (Housing) SC Convener (Craft): Walter Weir (City Development) SC Convener (Manual): George Lee (Social Work) SC Officers (4) Agnes Petkevicius (Education) Kevin Duguid (Finance) Gavin Martin (Env & Consumer) Vacant woman post Health & Safety: Tom McLeod (City Dev) Recruitment/Membership: Craig MacLeod (City Development) Equalities: Irene Stout (Culture & Leisure) Education: Amanda Kerr (Culture & Leisure) Communications: John Stevenson (Social Work) Welfare (Job Share): Gillian Allan (LVJB) Mike Smith (Finance) Elections Required for the following Branch Officer post International Officer Ballot results recorded were: M Crighton (City Development) 119 votes David Hop (Vol Sector)/Peter Sharma (Vol Sector) 57 votes, 3 spoilt papers M Crighton was duly elected. No nominations were received for the post of Assistant Secretary and one Service Conditions Officer (both of whom must be women) and Young Members Officer. Nominations will continue to be sought via the Branch Committee for these posts. 9. RULE CHANGES Rule Change 1. Change frequency of Branch Equalities Committee Meetings Proposed by Irene Stout (Culture & Leisure) and Tom McLeod (City Development) In rule D.5.6 delete "monthly" and insert "bi-monthly" Decision: On being put to the meeting the terms of the Rule Change were AGREED. Rule Change 2 - Role of Branch President (in relation to structures for matters relating to support staff directly employed by the Branch) Proposed by John Stevenson (Social Work) and Seconded John Ross (Housing) Rule E 2(g) - Role of Branch President Delete wording in E 2(g) and substitute with:- Act as a route of appeal as required by Rule B5 on staffing matters in the context of agreements applying to branch employed staff. Role E3 - Role of Branch Chairperson Add new point 5 as follows: - 5. Any other responsibilities as outlined in Rule B5" Rule E4 - Role of Vice Chairperson (2) Delete 1, 2 and 3 and substitute with 1, 2, 3 and 5. New Rule B5 5. Branch Employed Staff Structures (a) Staffing sub Committee For all staffing policy matters except the consideration of individual or collective cases under the agreed staff Disciplinary and Grievance procedures, the Branch will establish a Staffing Sub Committee. This sub-committee will consist of the Branch Chairperson, Branch Secretary, Branch Service Conditions Convener 9or nominee), Branch Treasurer and three members elected by the Branch Policy and Finance Committee. (b) Staff Grievance and Disciplinary Appeals (i) Staff Grievance and Disciplinary procedures will be those agreed from time to time with the staff trade union(s). These procedures will require clear lines for appeals purposes as follows. (ii) The Branch President will provide a first line of appeal for staff grievance and disciplinary matters. The President may seek advice and assistance in this task from other branch officers. (iii) As the ultimate line of appeal, the Branch will establish a Staffing Appeals Committee comprising the Branch Chairperson, Branch Equalities Officer and one member elected from the Policy and Finance Committee. The Vice Chairs will substitute for the Branch Chairperson if she/he has already been directly involved in the case in question. (iv) The procedures for dealing with staff grievances and appeals will be those agreed with the staff trade union(s) from time to time. Decision: On being put to the meeting the terms of the Rule Change were AGREED Rule Change 3 - Young members Proposed by John Stevenson (Social Work) and John Ross (Housing) Rule E 19 Change ‘Youth Officer' to ‘Youth Members Officer' in title. In point d) change ‘Youth Conference' to ‘Young Members Conferences'. Decision: On being put to the meeting the terms of the Rule Change were AGREED 10. POLICY MOTIONS Motion 1 Campaigning for Positively Public Services - Proposed by John Stevenson (Social Work) and John Ross (Housing) This Branch notes the widespread demoralisation of local government and voluntary sector staff due to continued attacks on public services and the pay and conditions of the workers who provide them. Yet it notes that a UNISON MORI poll shows people in Scotland value their services and 91% are opposed to the private sector running public services. This branch notes the success of its campaign to draw attention to the crisis in Children's Services. It also notes that it has resulted in united calls to the Scottish Executive to provide more funding for councils. We resolve to take this strategy further to national level and locally by developing well-researched critiques on all of the services we provide, to build and maintain public support. This Branch calls on the Council and Government to abandon outdated privatisation and PFI schemes and to look at imaginative ways to modernise public services by giving them the public investment they need. Whilst we recognise industrial action may be needed to defend our members, we also need to lobby politically and in partnership with community and other organisations to address the policy issues that create the threats to jobs and services and the undermining of pay and conditions. We therefore resolve to intensify the campaign for the themes of UNISON's Positively Public' and ‘...for World Class Public Services' campaigns in Scotland.
Decision: On being put to the meeting the terms of the motion were AGREED Motion 9 Campaigning for Public Services and Public Employees - Proposed by Matthew Crighton (City Development) and Gavin Martin (Env & Consumer Services) We recognise that the principles which underpin public services are under threat at all levels, from the global (GATS) to the local (PPP). This means that the quality of services, their availability to all and the pay and conditions of the workers who provide them are all in question. In these circumstances the ability of our union to achieve success in negotiations for its members is underpinned by its ability to achieve influence and win arguments in the public and political arenas. Each relies on the other. Therefore we need to promote the campaigning role of our branches, activists and members. In each locality we aspire to the trade union movement, and our union in particular, to have a central role in forming and giving voice to public opinion on these matters. We believe that at any time there will be a need to be putting forward our views and policies on specific or general issues, so, to these ends, we agree to set up a Campaigns Working Group in the branch, accountable to the Branch Committee via P&F, which can co-ordinate campaigning activities and generate participation by activists and members. Decision: On being put to the meeting the terms of the motion were AGREED On a point of order the meeting agreed to debate the following Emergency Motion at this time. Motion 12 Stop the Deportation of Bakkari Adoui The Emergency Motion was proposed by Marlyn Tweedie (Social Work) and Sylvia Crick (Voluntary Sector) In 2001 the City of Edinburgh UNISON Branch agreed to support the campaign of opposition of the threatened deportation of Bakkari Adoui. Bakkari Adoui has lived in Edinburgh for 3 years. He is an asylum seeker from Tanzania who fears for his life if he is forcibly returned. Amnesty International reported on "systematic torture and mass arbitrary arrests" and "indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against civilians". On Saturday 9th March 2002 Bakkari Adoui was detained at his local police station. From there he was taken to Manchester detention centre and then on to Harmondsworth detention centre near London. Neither Bakkari nor his lawyer were given any notice of his detention and/or threatened deportation. Bakkari's lawyer is doing all he can but UNISON can continue its support of Bakkari by requesting David Blunkett, Home Secretary, allow Bakkari to return to his home in Edinburgh. This A.G.M. therefore calls on UNISON to protest against Bakkari's detention and to contact the Home Office as soon as possible urging Bakkari's release. The terms of any correspondence should also be forwarded to all Edinburgh MPS and this motion should also be submitted to Scottish Council for action. Decision: On being put to the meeting the terms of the Emergency Motion were AGREED. Motion 2 Joint Futures Proposed by George Lee (Social Work) and John Stevenson (Social Work) This meeting recognises the benefits of closer working between Local Government and Health Services but is concerned about the limited timescales for consultation on issues like a Human Resources statement of intent and a Developmental and Training Plan. This branch is concerned that: - 1. Indications suggest management structures will consist of
Partnership Boards. This would create a democratic deficit with
responsibility to the Scottish Executive rather than the communities
they serve. 2. While welcoming the avoidance of duplication in service provision,
we cannot ignore the potential for Job Loss and the implications
for Service Conditions with staff transferring between agencies. We note discussions have started between local branches in Local Government and Health to ensure local negotiating teams are in place as soon as possible. We welcome the efforts of UNISON officers involved in the development of Human Resources proposals but consider it imperative a UNISON agenda for "Joint Futures" be drafted with the active involvement of those members who stand to be affected. A framework must be put in place forthwith to facilitate that involvement. This meeting requests Branch Officers initiate discussion processes with members who would potentially be affected by Joint Futures. Decision: On being put to the meeting the terms of the motion were AGREED At this point the Chair advised the AGM was closed with all remaining motions and vacant Branch Officer posts being remitted to the Branch Committee for decision and action.
|