UNISON has won more time to put the union’s case against Edinburgh council’s proposed new sickness absence policy. At today’s Policy and Strategy Committee, UNISON set out the union’s concerns about the ‘draconian’ policy and its reasons for opposing it.
Lib Dem and SNP councillors agreed to ask that a sentence be added to the policy to allow managers to apply discretion. Labour councillors asked for a continuation to next month’s committee to allow for meeting with Administration and Chief Executive to take place.
The Lib Dem/SNP motion was carried so Labour asked that it be referred to Full Council in February and this was carried.
The issue will now go before the full Council on Thursday 2 February and in the meantime, UNISON Branch Secertary Agnes Petkevicius has asked for a meeting with the Administration to outline the union’s opposition.
i was briefed on the new sickness absence policy by my team leader on 2nd February and told to implement it with immediate effect. Have the discussions finished?
The Full Council on 2 February continued the issue for further discussions and it will come back to the Full Council on 15 March 2012. In the meantime the old policy remains in place and the new policy should NOT be being applied. The union will be doing all it can to get a fair agreement.