1 August 2014
Electronic monitoring ditched after union campaign
The council has withdrawn plans for electronic monitoring of the home care workforce and agreed to sit down with the union to jointly look at constructive ways of monitoring and improving Home Care and Re-ablement services. The pilot in NW2 will now come to an end.
“UNISON has achieved what we set out to do. Members had been deeply upset at the electronic monitoring plans which they found ‘unnecessary and insulting’, as they told the UNISON AGM,” said Tam McKirdy lead branch negotiator.
“It has been a long road since the AGM in 2013 backed the campaign and we wouldn’t have got here if staff had not voted so overwhelmingly in a ballot. I know members have been frustrated by the length of time these things take, and all the legal obstacles, but at the end of the day we have won an excellent result.
“We have achieved that with nobody having to lose pay in strike action and with service users having no interruption to the excellent service our members provide.”
The Care Inspectorate requires providers to monitor services and UNISON will work with the council on systems that show respect for staff and service users – and most of all, that are shown to work effectively.
Click here for an earlier UNISON briefing that gives a chronology of the dispute and negotiations (pdf).